


truth in fire

by cryptilli



Category: No Fandom
Genre: F/F, Fantasy, Original Character(s), Original Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:54:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 51,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28090491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryptilli/pseuds/cryptilli
Summary: Leviathan is the lieutenant of the guard in District of the Horn. She dedicates her life to her job, taking it more serious than even her commander. When the continent's most prolific serial killer appears to her in a church fire, she begins to investigate what really went on.
Kudos: 3





	1. odd (prologue)

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a story I began writing of my OC's for fun. I hope you enjoy it. My instagram is @cryptillii, DM me for more information. Just make sure to tell me where you come from. I also post art of the characters, if you're interested. Might help you visualize. I have r*pe marked in the warnings because there will be mentions later on, but not for a while. I'll put a warning in the notes before the chapters that include such mentions.  
> Some background on the main characters, since they are not particularly described. Oops.
> 
> Leviathan- The lieutenant of the District of the Horn guard. A vampire with a black mullet that covers one eye. Been with the guard since she was 15. Intelligent, takes her job very seriously. Sports neck tattoos. 
> 
> Jupiter- A thief and serial killer(?) from District of the Feather that is on the run, a prison escapee. Immature, obnoxious, stubborn. Bright yellow hair and skinny as a twig. Has a large, deep scar under her left eye. 
> 
> Some background on the world mentioned currently. 
> 
> The Districts
> 
> District of the Horn (Closest to Earth’s Europe/England.)  
> Patron god: Tri-horned stag. Said to bring the hammer of justice down to the peoples of the world.  
> Government: Oligarchy  
> Heads of the government:  
> Capital: Ellenridge, hub for the government families. Bustling with markets and shops and other wealthy establishments. Lakeside to Nijollan Lake, has a vibrant fishing industry, and is one of the larger capitals on the continent.  
> Life sink: Leskar Stones. An arrangement of various stones all pointing upwards. Standing in the center gives incredible power to those who can use it. Clerics and religious folk are likely to come here to rest.  
> Features of the District: Heavy woodlands throughout its entirety. Large lake in the center and the base of the mountainous forests. Ruins of ancient stone structures stand alone in the forest as well as caves with paintings inside of them. 
> 
> Other things of note:  
> Jupiter’s current residence and the location of Leviathan’s guard force/residence. They live in the capital.  
> Language is English/similar to english with a mix of dutch-like influences.  
> Main form of transportation is walking/wagons
> 
> District of the Feather (Closest to Russia/Siberia.)  
> Patron god: The Great Owl. An owl larger than the tallest tree with a third eye on the back of its head. Brings knowledge to all who seek it. Possesses a higher intelligence than the peoples of the continent.  
> Government: Republic  
> Heads of the government:  
> Capital: Metyavsk. A vibrant city in an otherwise unforgiving locale. Holds a lot of wealth despite being small. Main export is metals and minerals mined from the mountains. Also lakeside but the lake often freezes over for most of the year.  
> Life sink: Nepeina Falls. A waterfall that cannot be frozen over...comes from hot springs unknown to man and deep in the mountains. The river that flows from it eventually cools off. Standing under the falls is a dangerous, yet usually successful affair. One of the strongest life sinks.  
> Features of the District: A snowy wasteland 9 out of 12 months of the year. Incredibly cold, snowy, and quiet. The mountains hold many secrets and surround most of the towns and villages. 
> 
> Other things of note:  
> Crovoska is where Jupiter grew up (and exploded…)  
> Yuferev Prison is where Jupiter was held prisoner.  
> Not many cities, some mountain villages. Crovoska is one next to the life sink.  
> Language is Metyavskin. Similar to Russian but spoken very quickly.  
> Main form of transportation is horseback. 
> 
> There are more districts, however the information and map cannot be included in the notes. Please DM me on instagram (@cryptillii) for more information, such as the world map. 
> 
> Sorry for the lengthy notes. I don't think I'll include this information in future editions.

You know, it’s strange.  
How oddly things may change and how quickly.  
It was also strange, how different she looked now, sputtering and half-awake in the basement of this building. Fire licked at my ankles. I was frozen.  
Every time I’d seen her, face-to-face, she had a grin filled with sharp teeth lining the inside of her mouth and then some. She taunted, she laughed, she giggled. She stole my sword from my hands innumerable times. Her clothes were pristine despite her life on the run, maybe a trace of hay in her hair, but no dirt smudged upon her. I kicked mud up at her once and she squealed, more upset in that moment by her muddled clothes rather than the fact that her capture was imminent. But it wasn’t really.  
She was slippery, like an eel, always just sliding between my fingers.  
Her portrait I had seen oft. She was very different in that, a scowl drawn across her face and eyes narrowed. She was free of scars but her hair was black for the most part. Most people saw this image as terrifying. I saw it as sad.  
I could see the terror behind her eyes in that photo. That you’d been lied to. I knew it well.  
But seeing her now, her clothes tattered and burnt, eyes watery and hacking a lung, she looked so small.  
I was right.  
Over the months I had searched endless times through the censored files, dark lines cascading across the pages, blocking out most information to the public. Marker drawn to attention like a sword and slashed across the paper. It was irritating, knowing so little about such a supposedly deviant killer yet being asked to hunt her down like a wild pig. They wanted her alive, too. That made our job harder.  
Since I’d seen her face on the “Wanted” poster I knew something had happened. I had heard stories of how she’d behaved when cornered, how she’d apologize and wince when her sword slashed, and none of it lined up. Logic. Logic was the ruler of this world. And it wasn’t at all logical. She never once hurt a guard without an apology, and one guard even said he saw tears in her eyes when she gave him a nasty gash on the arm.  
A ruthless killer, people said.  
Sure. And I’m a rat.  
I looked down at her, face lit up with the embers surrounding us. She had some nasty burns on her and was trapped under a beam.  
My feet seemed to thaw from their frozen state and I shot to life, picking the beam up and off of her, and tossing it into the blaze. She wheezed as the pressure fell off of her. That probably broke a few ribs, that beam.  
“Jovana, can you stand?”  
She didn’t seem to hear me over the roar of the flames.  
“JOVANA?”  
Her head raised slowly, she mumbled something incoherent before erupting into a coughing fit and struggling to stand. Jovana Malcović thoughtlessly pressed her hand against the flaming wall and burned her hand, but she didn’t flinch despite the smell of burnt flesh rising in the air. She scowled at me, hair becoming undone, choked a little bit, before stumbling slowly past me and towards the exit, ever still trying to escape. I lightly grabbed her shoulder and bent over quickly, squatting to pull her off the ground. She was in no condition to walk, and we needed out faster than she could move. I swiped her up with a grunt, and she feebly attempted to protest, socking me in the cheek. I knew she could do better than that, but it still hurt. I ignored it and continued my efforts to escape the building. I charged through the door, carrying her out into the nearby woods to hide her.  
“Don’t fuckin’ touch me-” She whined between her teeth.  
“Ah, foul-mouthed.” I grumbled, ignoring her griping and setting her down against a rock and looking around to make sure no other guards had seen.  
I had no intention of turning her in.  
I had no intention of arresting her.  
She deserved justice, justice hidden behind those marker lines and that shy apology and the look in her eyes that screamed despair.  
She wasn’t a ruthless killer. Especially not right now.  
“Jovana Malcović, you aren’t under arrest, so stop… wiggling-”  
I held her down by the wrist and she wriggled miserably under me. Weakly.  
It was sad to see her this way.  
“Fuckin’ liar, you’re just gonna take me in the second I pass the hell out-”  
“No, I’m not.”  
“Okay, LIEUTENANT-”  
I rolled my eyes.  
“Yes, I know my rank. Doesn’t mean I’m turning you in.”  
She squinted at me stupidly, mouth agape for a few seconds before sucking in air too hard and beginning another coughing fit. When it settled, she leaned close to my face and frowned.  
“Well, I’m not letting you. I won’t pass out, and I’ll fuckin’-”  
She suddenly, with strength I didn’t realize she had left, yanked her arm up, mine following, and bit down sorely on my hand.  
I howled unintentionally, and she laughed as I let go, scooting away quickly and struggling to stand. Despite her condition, she only now realized that she couldn’t get away from me.  
That prompted her to pull a switchblade out of her pocket shakily. She looked down at her arm and gave me the weirdest look I’d ever seen. Eyes glazed over, lips slightly parted into a grin, hands shaking.  
“I can’t fucking go back to prison.”  
I didn’t feel my feet move under me, I only felt a collision and then looked down. I had tackled her, and the knife had gone flying. I picked her up quickly, uttering a quick “shut up” and picked her up tightly from the ground. Her struggling was getting weaker, and I knew I had to get her out of here soon. I knew a friend in these woods. I’d head there.


	2. stubborn (chapter 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jupiter has a rude awakening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please DM me @cryptillii on instagram for drawings, maps, and the google docs of information.

JUPITERS POV

Yeah, I think this has by far been the worst way I’ve been woken up since I can remember.  
The first sensations were just… ugh, pain all over and burning and stinging and… ugh. Yeah. My chest felt like it’d been caved in. I had blinked my eyes open slowly, unsure of how much I approved of the harsh light outside my window.  
And then I sat up, which was just, well, more pain. God, whatever happened to me was rough. And then I saw her.  
The fuckin’ lieutenant of the guard.  
Sitting in front of me.  
Reading a book.  
“Ah, you’re awake.”  
She didn’t look up.  
I was already looking for an exit.  
“Um. How do you do- ow, fuck-” I grumbled in reply, voice trembling slightly. My head fuckin’ hurt like hell. I slowly began to rise from where I had slept.  
“Where are you going?”  
Her voice startled me and I jumped a little.  
“You know, this is great and all, thanks for the rescue or whatever, but uh…”  
“You’re not leaving.”  
Every inch of my body was filled with absolute dread. But I’d been cornered before. I could weasel my way out.  
She looked up briefly, before something flashed in her eye. Some sort of response to me. It was shockingly in tune with my feelings.  
“Don’t worry. I’m not turning you in.”  
She shut her book with a clap and looked me in the eyes.. with the only eye visible.  
I sat there, dumbfounded at what I had just heard, jaw slightly agape before I snapped it shut and awe turned to fear.  
“Okay. Then you’ll let me leave.”  
“No.”  
She shifted a little, leaning back and relaxing. Her gaze was soft, non-threatening. I didn’t trust her for a second. Her hand moved to set the book down on the end table next to her.  
“Okay, um, listen, I told you already, I can’t go back to prison so I’ll be-”  
I leapt at the window next to my bed, crashing through it. I saw her for a brief moment look out at me in utter shock. The fall was about two floors, so it wasn’t exactly fatal on the way down. The winter had allowed a cushion of snow to settle on the earth and that stopped me a little. I heard something pop.  
Jumping to my feet, I scouted for the best route out. I’d gotten really good at forming escape routes, and started booking it into the woods nearby. My feet, bare, stung in the ice. I got about 50 feet away when I suddenly, amidst all the adrenaline pumping through me, buckled into the snow. I felt all the pain suddenly, more so than I had earlier.  
Holy mother of fuck. Great Owl, Fuck Fuck Fuckity Fuck.  
My ankle had done somethin’ and the damned thing wouldn’t let me move. Even if it hadn’t, the pain from what I now recognized to be a lot of goddamned burns and the singing in my chest caused me to nearly hack up my lungs. I crawled behind a nearby boulder.  
Her footsteps approached, slowly, calmly. Her voice… was somewhat concerned.  
“Jovana?”  
I held my breath even though it felt as though a fire was lit inside my lungs. I was shaking. Why was I so goddamned afraid of prison.  
After all, for what I’d done, I deserved to be punished.  
So why, for all of the gods sake, would I not just let myself go?  
Something always stopped me, held me back.  
I heard a step next to me. I looked to my right and her boot was sunken into the snow. Flakes began to flutter down upon us. She must have noticed my involuntary response to this whole charade, the shaking.  
“Jovana, I didn’t mean to-”  
“That’s not my name.”  
“It’s not?”  
“Jupiter. That’s my name.”  
I said, baring my teeth violently and trying to appear threatening. In my current state, that was hopeless.  
“Ah, apologies. Jupiter.”  
What the fuck? Who’s this bitch and why is she so fuckin’ nice?  
She crouched down next to me, kneeling in the snow. The lieutenant was awfully polite even though her face expressed little feeling.  
“Listen, I’m going to get you back inside. You’re in no condition to be out here and it seems you’ve hurt yourself. It’s freezing too, no wonder you’re shivering.”  
She lifted a finger to my cheek. Glass was stuck in it.  
“Don’t t-touch me.”  
I batted her hand away, frowning and scooting back in the snow. She looked confused, almost a little angry.  
“I said I’m not turning you in.”  
“Yeah, okay, and the Great Owl shat me out themselves.”  
The lieutenant scoffed and rolled her eyes, approaching me slowly, carefully.  
“I’m not. I have no intention of returning you to the Feather District.”  
Her voice was cool and steady, even though her brow was beginning to furrow slightly.  
“You’re a liar. All of you are fucking liars.”  
This surprised her a little. Her blank expression turned into a frown.  
“I can assure you I do not lie, Jupiter. I have been investigating your case. I have found your behavior doesn’t line up with the facts we were provided.”  
I don’t know what happened in the next moment. I don’t know what face I made, but it got her attention.  
“Don’t… look at me that way.”  
She looked down at my arm. Shit, I was scratching it.  
“Why are you doing that?”  
“Why aren’t you doing it? Ever think of that?”  
She made a face of general unamusement. She stood up, offering her hand to me.  
“Come on.”  
Her voice was exasperated.  
I just stared up at her, looking past her eyes. Fuck eye contact. Felt gross.  
“Jupiter.”  
She got stern, growling a little bit as she said it.  
“I think... you’re a liar.”  
The lieutenant suddenly groaned loudly, throwing her hands in the air and kicking a smaller rock nearby. I jumped.  
“Jupiter, I’m trying to protect you, this is important, so please cooperate, I am not comfortable taking you back without your permission since you aren’t under arrest-”  
“Then why can’t I go?”  
She gripped her hair angrily from her forehead.  
“BECAUSE IF YOU DO, OTHER GUARDS WILL CATCH YOU-”  
I cocked my head at her.  
“Huh?”  
“Oh my lord you’re dense.”  
“Thanks. I know.”  
“The investigation is classified. The other guards do not know. The Feather District will not know.”  
“Yeah, I don’t trust you.”  
Her eye almost bulged out of her head.  
“JUPITER-”  
“WHAT?”  
She inhaled deeply and offered her hand again.  
“Please. Let me help you.”  
I was a serial killer. A violent, horrible monster in the eyes of society. A thief, a heathen, a criminal mastermind. And yet, the lieutenant of the Horn District’s guard was trying to help me.  
I took her hand.  
\---------  
LEVI’S POV

This girl was a nightmare.  
As we trudged through the rising snow, she whined about how she thought I was a liar and she didn’t trust me. I was surprised she was tolerating the pain, considering she’d ran on a broken ankle and she was covered in various degrees of burns. But she didn’t complain about that. No, she only complained of how little she trusted me.  
But I suppose it can’t be helped.  
Whatever happened with her, she was falsely accused of… who knows. Something went on. That’s for sure.

When we arrived at Sayo’'s house, they were patching up their window angrily. I understood. This rodent of a woman did destroy their property. I’d be pissed too. Jupiter looked up at them.  
“Um… sorry, is that your house?”  
She shouted up, looking skittish.  
Sayo looked down frustratedly.  
“Yeah, it is.”  
I heard them sigh from above. They were apparently replacing the glass magically, something they were rather talented at.  
Jupiter frowned, staying silent for a few moments for the first time since I’d found her in the woods for the second time.  
“Um… I don’t know you, but I thought I was in a guard station.”  
Sayo looked down with understanding.  
“That’s oka- hey man, you’re hurt-” they shouted down, still focused on their magic.  
The glass set into place with a satisfactory click, and Sayo disappeared back into their home.

I led her inside, coaxing her gently so as to not spook her. She looked to be in great pain, both emotionally, allowing herself to trust me even a little, and physically, sore and with cuts across her, little pieces of glass stuck in her skin.  
Sayo met us at the door. They took Jupiter in, not understanding Jupiter’s sensitivity to being touched. She batted them away, frowning. They looked a little upset but allowed it, Jupiter leading the way.  
“You’re going to sleep after we fix you up. You need rest.”  
“Yeah, yeah, fuckin’ whatever.”  
Jupiter hissed between her teeth, frowning. 

\--------

I watched her rest, but she slept with one eye open. It left me time for my thoughts. It left me time to brood as I always do. I leaned back in my chair.  
Why was this brutal killer, this violent woman, the girl who killed over thirteen people and sawed her girlfriends head nearly off so… the way she was? Immature, nervous, scared.  
I took the time to look over her when she finally fell asleep. It was a given considering her injuries.  
Her hair was a shocking electric yellow with black roots. No way she got that color through hair dye and didn’t fry the hell out of her hair. I noticed her cheeks were raw, scratched similarly to the pink fleshiness of her arm earlier. The scar under her eye was large, and it was shocking it hadn’t blinded her.  
That’s funny. Why didn’t it blind her?  
Intentional. I thought.  
I assumed that it was probably the result of a deal gone wrong. She was mixed up in a lot of those, but I couldn’t fault her for it. What else could she do? Get a job at a café? Not nearly. I frowned slightly.  
I knew what it was like to be treated like you’re disposable, unworthy and unwanted. I thought it odd, much of her disposition as well as her appearance. The meticulous care she took of her hair despite not even having her own bathroom to care for herself… the way she dressed without a wardrobe, how clean she was… I could only assume it came with a lot of planning. I had underestimated her ability, it seemed. Perhaps she wasn’t just lucky.  
Who was she?  
I had to ask, at least. I pulled the smooth metal sphere out of my pocket, pressing a finger gently to the surface. It split into four, and I rotated the right side once. It sprayed mist into the air from its center, as it always did. The shaking image of my commander appeared in the mist.  
“Good evening, Commander Thomas.”  
“Hey. Didn’t I tell you to stop bein’ so damn formal?”  
“I don’t recall.”  
The corners of my mouth raised a little. He laughed heartily.  
“Aight, whatcha need?”  
“I have someone I’d like you to meet. But you can’t tell anybody about them. Meet me at the coordinates I’m sending now.”  
“Sure thing. But…”  
He tilted his head, smirking widely.  
“Why all the secrecy?”  
“You’ll see, Nassau.”  
“Thanks for the droppin’ a the formalities, Lieutenant.”  
The metal sphere, split in four, closed itself and the mist ceased dispensing. I pocketed it again, and leaned my head on my folded hands.

\--------  
JUPITER’S POV

“Oh great, so now there’s two of you untruthers.”  
The lieutenant glared at me, face flattened into no expression. The other man, much shorter, bizarre looking, held out his hand to me. He had a large red mohawk that threatened to fall in his face. I judged his choice in cargo shorts.  
“Good evenin’. I’m Commander Nassau Thomas and…”  
“OH, So you brought your COMMANDER-”  
“Jupiter…”  
The lieutenant started, almost scornfully.  
I crossed my arms firmly, eyes lowering. He kept his hand outstretched. His face was warm and kind. Looks are deceiving.  
I leaned back farther.  
Still, with his arm stretched out to shake my hand, he leaned over to the lieutenant, whose name I still hadn’t gotten.  
“She ain’t too keen on us, ain’t she?”  
I stuck my tongue out at them. The lieutenant rolled her eyes. She did that a lot, didn’t she?  
“I’d imagine it's the fact that we put her away?”  
“We ain’t do that directly!”  
I looked between the two of them.  
“You’re all the same.”  
The looked at each other for a second.  
“Hey, lieutenant, I’m speaking to you-”  
I snapped my bandaged fingers at her. No sound came out.  
“Levi, you ain’t told her your name?”  
“Levi?”  
“Ah, my apologies, Jupiter. My name is Leviathan.”  
“What kinda fucking name is Leviathan?”  
“What kind of a name is Jupiter?!”  
“Okay, you know what ladies, why don’t we calm the hell down and talk like reasonable fellas.”  
Leviathan had stood up, staring down at me on the bed. I took the very intelligent decision to stand up too. Nope, that didn’t work. Ankles fucked.  
I toppled to the floor.  
“Woah, woah, woah,”  
Commander Thomas put his hands up trying to let me know he was trying to help. I spit on him. He winced a little.  
“Alright, I get it, I get it. I see why you’re pissed.”  
Leviathan glowered at me and frankly I thought she was going to pummel me.  
I helped myself up on the bed.  
“Listen, Jupiter. We are… uh…of the impression somethin’ went on with your case. Somethin’ went wrong.”  
My eyes widened at the Commander’s words. So they weren’t just joking? They had to be. They had to be tricking me.  
“How the hell do you know that?”  
Leviathan sighed and sat at the foot of my bed. Nassau still had his hand outstretched.  
“Analyzing your behavior, how you refuse to even hurt the guards, how you slip away but haven’t hurt anyone despite it being in your best interest, how…”  
“Hey, are you calling me a pussy?”  
Nassau laughed loudly, beating his chest.  
“No, Jupiter, I’m not.”  
The lieutenant sneered, rolling her eyes for the umpteenth time.  
“What else were you gonna say? How weak I am?”  
“No. It wasn’t important.”  
“Tell me.”  
“No.”  
“Tell me.”  
“No!”  
“Tellllll meeeeee.”  
Leviathan made a low growling in her throat, gripping the blankets tightly. The commander placed a hand on her knee and she sucked in a deep breath.  
“I can tell you’re scared. You’re not murderous. You’re afraid.”  
“So you ARE calling me a pussy?!”  
“THAT IS IT-”  
The lieutenant stood up abruptly, kicking over a nearby trash bin. Damn, she had buttons that were easy to push.  
I laughed at her in a mocking way. She gripped the collar of my shirt tightly and pulled me forward with force.  
“Listen, Jupiter, we’re trying to help you, do you want us to throw you to the dogs? We can turn you in-”  
“I knew it. You fuckers are turning me in.”  
I didn’t mean to, but my face slipped into an expression that upset her. I could feel the corners of my mouth rising in a terrified smile. I stopped blinking. God, I was a pussy. She abruptly let go of my shirt and gently covered her mouth, looking embarrassed.  
“Levi, apologize.”  
The commander stared at her sternly, pulling his arm back finally.  
She looked me in the eyes.  
“I am so sorry. I didn’t mean any of that, I was just angry.”  
I was already standing up.  
“I don’t like you guys.”  
I said plainly and headed for the door.

\-----------  
LEVI’S POV

Well, I fucked up for sure. That expression she’d made was the same she’d made in the woods with the knife in her hand after I’d first found her. After that encounter and bringing her here, I’d realized that it was a suicide attempt. The face was that of despair, of no hope. It worried me deeply.  
I really was just angry with her. I didn’t like her uncouth behavior. But she was already heading out the door. It was depressing to watch her limp away on a broken ankle, covered in bandages for all the burns she sustained. Nassau followed her. Sitting on the bed for a while, I listened to them talk below. I could hear them arguing downstairs, the commander remaining calm while she was clearly distressed and sounding desperate to get out of there. Sayo eventually entered the mix, trying to calm her down. Jupiter was yelling.  
God, her voice was shaking. I really fucked up. But it did make me think.  
The prisons in the Horn District are well regulated and well kept, and prisoners are treated fairly depending on their crime…the death penalty only a factor in the worst of crimes, but all things considered, her desire for death over prison was something I could not understand. I wondered how the Feather District handled their prisons.  
I heard Nassau’s footsteps coming up the stairs. I knew them well, those heavy, flat-footed steps. He peeked his head in the room.  
“Hey, Levi. We calmed her down. I think she’s going to talk to us.”  
“How’d you manage that?”  
“I told her that if she wanted to go after we talked to her, she could.”  
“WHAT?”  
“She don’t trust us, Levi. We’re scarin’ her.”  
I took a moment to think.  
“But what if she gets caught by other guards? How will we explain it? She can’t escape anyone right now-”  
“Well, we’ll talk to her about that after she talks.”  
I frowned, thinking on it before deciding it was the only way.  
I trudged downstairs behind Commander Nassau, letting my feet clip off the staircase edges to move faster.  
There she was. Stick-thin, yellow haired, covered in wrappings. Her legs spread apart in a manspread position, arms crossed. She wouldn’t look at me.  
We sat down across from her. Nassau started.  
“Alright, now that we’re all settled in, let’s discuss what happened. We wanna hear it from you.”  
He drawled, folding his hands together and leaning forward. Jupiter kept eye contact in the next solar system.  
“Why don’t you just ask the other guards? They’ll tell you. I killed a bunch of people. I’m evil.”  
Unsatisfied with that answer, he continued.  
“No, ya ain’t. We met evil people and ya ain’t one. Why don’t you wanna tell us?”  
“Cuz you don’t need to know!”  
I looked over at him. He sighed, pinching the bridge between his eyes. At least I wasn’t the only frustrated party here.  
“What really happened on that day in winter?”  
Jupiter looked solemn for a moment, biting the inside of her cheek before turning and aiming deadly with her eyes on me.  
“I saw the guy who killed Vivian. I blacked out. I woke up, they arrested me. Happy fuckin’ holidays, can I go now?”  
This caught me off guard. There was no mention in any of the files about another person killing Vivian Westerfield. It just said there was decisive evidence she’d done it. I never believed it. She had no motive.  
“So you claim that another man killed Vivian Westerfield? Can you tell us more about what happened in that event.”  
Jupiter looked back to the side, scratching her upper arm. It was like a nervous tic, I presumed. It wasn’t good for her. She blinked consecutively a few times, and I could see her eyes watering.  
“I walked home from school-”  
“Wait, how old were you?”  
“Seventeen.”  
“How old were you when the explosion occurred?”  
“Seventeen.”  
I leaned back in my chair. She wasn’t old enough to be tried as an adult under normal circumstances. Someone had to make that happen.  
“Anyway, I walked home from school. I got home, my parents were out of town-”  
“Wait, there’s no mention of your parents in any-”  
“Would you let me finish? Anyway, the door was ajar. I pushed it open and I saw a figure move out the back door. I saw the side of his face for a moment when I opened the door. He turned to see who was there. And then I looked down…”  
Her eyes started watering more significantly. I felt myself frown. Her nails dug into the flesh of her upper arm harder, and she lost expression in her voice when she spoke.  
“She was dead. My girlf- Vivian was dead.”  
“It says they found you next to the body, covered in her blood, can you explain-”  
I looked up at her and it cut me off. She was crying. Her shoulders shook as tears dripped off her cheeks, eyes slammed shut. I could hear her sucking in shallow breaths.  
She didn’t do it.  
I knew right then that she didn’t do it.  
I’ve been told I have intuition. Some way of knowing things for sure. And I knew for sure, at that moment, she didn’t do it.  
My thoughts were interrupted.  
“I-I… I found her and I didn’t know what else to do, I, um… I just laid down next to her and pretended we were… we were together again and it was fine and that the warmth was her. But it wasn’t…”  
She broke down, covering her face with one hand and scratching with another. Beads of blood began rising to the surface of her arm.  
That explanation was too specific… too genuine to be fake. In the photo they took of the crime scene, you could see an outline underneath the dead girl’s arm where a body had sat. I’d seen that picture a thousand times. Yet her file said nothing about her story.  
Nassau went over to sit next to her and put a hand on her back. This seemed to have moved him somewhat.  
She had been so young.  
Both of them.  
I sighed. Nassau opened his mouth slightly, closed it, then started again.  
“I know this is a lot, but you need to tell me… you need to tell us what happened on the day in winter.”  
“You… you won’t believe me.”  
“Try us.” I said, crossing one leg over another.  
I wished I could comfort her somehow. Jupiter sucked in a large breath and wiped her face, trying to compose herself. It was clear she wasn’t happy with the idea of being watched so closely while this vulnerable.  
“I saw the guy that ran out of my house when I found Vivian. He was just walking along the road. I froze, I remembered feeling lightheaded, and then I woke up on the ground with…”  
She tensed up significantly.  
“Bodies convulsing around me. I thought to myself… What the hell happened here? Oh god, why am I alive? And then guards picked me up, putting cuffs on me and taking me away. I didn’t know why. They only told me later what I did.”  
I looked at Nassau for a moment. He raised an eyebrow at me and I nodded. Our signal for what my intuition said.  
“It was unintentional, Jupiter?”  
“I guess, I didn’t do it on purpose, somethin’ just happened and-”  
She jokingly made an explosion motion with her hands. She was still crying but laughed a little at her own joke.  
“The file says it was intentional.”  
“I told the guards at the time that it wasn’t. They said they believed me, then thirty minutes later they came in cursing me and spitting on me and telling me I was a monster for what I’d done.”  
I nodded, lingering on every word she chose.  
“I-I didn’t even know how to use my magic then!”  
That surprised me. Most sorcerers use their magic and use it proudly, it being such a rare occurrence, a gift to be given by the gods. Jupiter was exasperated.  
“Well, what about the people you killed in prison-”  
“WHAT?!”  
She screamed, standing up abruptly and forgetting to steady herself. The expression on her face left immeadiately. She stared at me with terror.  
“I… I…. I hurt… I hurt more people?”  
I tilted my head at her.  
“You… don’t remember?”  
“No, no I can’t… I can’t remember anything from prison.”  
She sat back down slowly, eyes widened with fear. God, this was… scary to watch.  
Nassau stood up and came over to me.  
“Do she got one of them multiple personalities?”  
He whispered in my ear, uneasily.  
I leaned back into his ear.  
“No, we would have seen behavioural cues. I looked into it as a possibility.”  
He nodded before returning to where Jupiter sat. She hadn’t moved, blinked, maybe even breathed. Her gaze was fixed on the coffee table.  
“Jupiter..?”  
I said quietly. She didn’t respond.  
“Jupi-”  
She slowly turned her head toward me with water in her eyes.  
“I killed them. I killed more people, who did I kill, who… why?”  
Her voice became quieter and quieter.  
“Other prisoners… but you can’t remember it. And I don’t believe you killed anyone else on purpose either. So why start then?”  
We sat there for a moment, all in silence.  
“I’m… disgusting.”  
Jupiter growled, tears spilling down her cheeks as she gripped both upper arms with a tightness I hadn’t before seen.  
“Please… turn me in.”

\-------  
JUPITER’S POV

No. No. No. No. No. No. I…. no. I don’t…  
“Jupiter, we’re still investigating.”  
I felt bile rise in my throat.  
“PUNISH ME GODDAMNIT-”  
I slammed my fist onto the coffee table. I was crackling with electricity and I didn’t realize it. I couldn't breathe. I must have scared them.  
Fucking figures.  
“Jupiter, we have reason to believe something went on. You aren’t a killer.”  
Leviathan’s voice was soft. She looked upset.  
“I AM, I AM, I AM-”  
My hands buried themselves in my hair and I began to pull it. I felt like I was dying.  
“Jupiter-”  
Nassau started. I felt my vision getting blurrier. Must have been the tears.  
He and Levi looked at each other.  
“We’re going to give you some time. We need to discuss a little bit, okay? It’ll be okay.”  
Both looked pretty concerned, but they walked out the front door anyway. I heard them speaking in hushed whispers. Sayo had gone upstairs. I looked towards the kitchen.  
Before I knew it, I was in there, standing alone on the cold linoleum and breathless. My ankle hurt like a bitch but my mission was undeterred.  
Someone must be punished.  
I must be punished.  
I pulled a kitchen knife out from the knife block.  
I looked down at my arm.  
I looked back at the knife.  
It was okay.  
It’d be over soon.  
I pressed it to my skin.

\-------


	3. hurt (chapter 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jupiter makes an oopsie whoopsie fuckie wuckie uwu
> 
> CW// Suicide Attempt, Blood, Gore

LEVI’S POV

Our discussion was going excellently. We seemed to agree it was bizarre that the poor woman couldn’t remember any of her time in prison, and there was no indication of her lying. I always was able to feel when people were lying. Nassau said it was a gift from the Tri-horned Stag. It gives me a weird twitchy feeling in my chest. Nothing she did gave off that signal.  
Our chat about what to do was interrupted quickly by a blood curdling scream by who I could only assume was Sayo.  
I forced the door open as quickly as possible. Before I could see what was happening, Sayo was shouting.  
“HOLY FUCK, SOMEONE GET A DOCTOR-”  
Oh no. Oh fuck.  
Something happened to Jupiter. I could feel it.  
I followed Sayo’s voice, careful to watch where I stepped in case of any bodies. God, please don’t be dead. You deserve justice. We need to know what happened-  
And there she was.  
Lying on the ground, arm slit open to the elbow, bleeding knife in opposing hand, she looked like a corpse. Nassau was already out the door running.  
God, she was annoying. But the gods as my witness she didn’t deserve this either.  
My feet carried me to her, and I felt for a pulse. There it was. There was one. It was quiet, slow, but it was there.  
“Jupiter? Jupiter?!”  
I held her face in my hands for a moment, trying to shake her awake.  
Her eyes blinked open slightly, and it was the first time I got a good look at them. Surprisingly bright, even now, heterochromatic, and vibrantly hued. Her pupils were like odd slits.  
“Whass… No… why am I awake.. the fuck did you do?”  
She whimpered quietly, dropping the knife with her other hand. I began to put on my best calming voice.  
Not my strong suit.  
“Stay awake, alright? We’re getting help… Talk to me.”  
Jupiter blinked stupidly at me, her jaw slightly agape.  
“No.”  
Did she have to be this insufferable? Even dying and she's still this abruptly stubborn?  
I did something… incompetent.  
I slapped her.  
“Ow, fuck... c’mon man, lemme... die and... don’t touch… me-”  
What was taking Nassau so long? He knew we had a doctor back at the station. It isn’t that far-  
I glanced down at Jupiter's arm. Blood boiled to the surface and sparkled oddly. The crimson drained out onto the floor and through the little slits in the linoleum tile, like a small river. There was a lot of it. The wound was deep, a plunging valley in a canyon. I grabbed a towel from the kitchen counter and began wrapping it tightly around her arm.  
“Dude, stop-”  
She grumbled, half awake and losing consciousness quickly. I looked over at Sayo, mumbling a quick apology about their kitchen towel, now ruined and soaked with seas of blood.  
Sayo stood there, uncomfortably, hand over their mouth and just staring at Jupiter.  
Then I thought about what we had divulged to her.  
That she killed more people.  
It all began to connect. Her behavior, her remorse when having to hurt someone when absconding… she didn’t want to hurt people. She regretted it. Maybe she never did.  
What if this was all orchestrated? Serial killers don’t usually feel such remorse for their actions, at least not any I’d dealt with. Such remorse they would end their own life  
And who was pulling the strings?  
I tightened my grip on her arm.  
Nassau slammed the door open, rushing in with Dr. Adrians. She’d brought everything she’d needed with her.  
“Holy hell, this is quite the mess.”  
She spoke plainly, sitting down next to Jupiter and opening the small case with a short click that she brought with her. It was filled with all sorts of medical supplies, and she immediately began reaching for a small vial of clear liquid. The cork popped off. It smelled horribly, like a bad chemical. Her hands deftly removed the fluid-soaked towel, and she began to pour it inside the wound slowly. I stayed, hovering over Jupiter. I looked down at her again.  
“Yep, she’s out.”  
Dr. Adrians said blankly, not looking up from her expertise.  
I felt for a pulse again. Still there. Weaker, but most importantly, still there.  
I ruffled her hair a little.  
Why the hell’d I do that? Stupid.  
Why do I care so much if she lives or dies? Why should it matter? She’s just another criminal-  
But she wasn’t. And I knew she wasn’t.  
It wasn’t fair she must die for a crime she never committed.  
I kneeled next to her, looking to Dr. Adrians for some kind of indication of her needing assistance.  
On cue, the good doctor spoke.  
“I got this. Just keep checking her pulse for me.”  
I nodded, keeping my gaze fixed on her work. At this point, she’d begun stitching down inside the wound, folding her the skin of Jupiter’s arm either way to get a better look. Her work was impressive, but I didn’t really think of admiration. I thought of the case. Of her.

Time passed, and soon the sound was completely stitched up and wrapped tightly with gauze and bandaging.  
“I have a question for you.”  
Dr. Adrians said, standing up to face Nassau and I.  
Nassau smirked lightly, but not so cheerily.  
“Yeah, that’s Jovana Malcović.”  
Cardinal Adrians put her hands on her hips.  
“How’d you catch her?”  
“Levi saved her from the recent church fire.”  
“The terrorist attack?”  
“Yep. She was in the basement.”  
Cardinal sucked on her teeth, crossing her arms and moving to sit down.  
“And why isn’t she with the Feather District?”  
“Levi pointed out some damnin’ issues in her behavioural profile in comparison to her track record.”  
“That being…?”  
I interjected.  
“She doesn’t behave like a killer. She behaves like a scared kid.”  
Cardinal thought about it for a moment, looking at the ceiling before looking back down at us.  
“I thought so too, hearing stories from the rest of the guard. What are we doing about it?”  
“Investigating. We already got a story not at all recorded in any of her files. One file even claims she confessed and she most certainly did not do that today-”  
“What sparked the uh…”  
She looked back at Jupiter, still on the floor. I took the executive decision to move her to Sayo’s couch. Sayo had long since left the home, probably going to cool off. I set a blanket on Jupiter gently. She was deeply asleep.  
“Suicide attempt?”  
Nassau spoke up this time.  
“Poor thing can’t remember a damned thing from prison, accordin’ to her. We asked her about the prison kills. She had no fuckin’ idea.”  
Cardinal paused before nodding quickly.  
“If I was told I killed over 38 people I’d be pretty upset too.”  
“We didn’t say the number. Even one was enough to set her off.”  
Cardinal sucked her teeth again, glancing over at Jupiter.  
“How old is she?”  
“Twenty-four.”  
“So she was seventeen when she was arrested? Tried as an adult? Her account not kept in the court record?”  
Her confusion was shared by the other two of us.  
“What was her story?”  
“She blacked out on the day of the explosion and only walked in on her girlfriend's body. Even says she saw the guy who killed her leaving the scene. And you know Levi’s little gift…”  
She turned to me, nodding.  
“No lie?”  
“No lie.”  
I spoke gently. I was afraid to wake her, even if she was succinctly comatose.  
Cardinal sat on this for a minute. We all did.  
The air was tense.  
“Well, something clearly went on.”  
Dr. Adrians finally spoke, gesturing with her hand.  
My mouth opened on its own.  
“I think this was orchestrated.”  
Nassau and Cardinal turned to look at me.  
“You ain’t mention that to me?”  
Nassau gestured to himself.  
“I just thought of it. I believe someone wanted her put away. Following the line of logic, her account was not considered whatsoever. They could have brought in a psychic to verify her story but someone was so sure it was her that they were able to bypass that. They tried her as an adult.”  
“Hol’ on. Are you sayin’ that someone of great influence wanted her gone?”  
“Exactly. I think someone had something against her and wanted her put away.”  
“The man she saw escaping?”  
“Perhaps.”  
Silence fell upon us again.  
“We won’t have access to those typa’ files.”  
Nassau looked concerned.  
“I know.”  
The air sat still for minutes.  
I walked over to her and began to observe the scar under her eye. It still bugged me.  
“I noticed that too.”  
Cardinal said, crossing her legs.  
“It seems as though it was deliberate, not an accident. A message.”  
So she agreed. I nodded subtly.  
“I assumed she sustained the injury as part of an underground deal. We know she was involved in that-”  
“Is she going to be held accountable for that too?”  
“Would it be fair to send someone to prison for stealing bread if they returned it and had stolen out of necessity?”  
Cardinal thought about this deeply too. She hung on words.  
“That’s a fair point…”  
She tapped her foot lightly.  
“How do we convince the Feather District to investigate? We know how closed-off they can be. How little they want us to know.”  
I frowned more than usual.  
“Of this I am unsure. We’ll have to come up with something. In the meantime, she’ll be staying where we can keep an eye on her but not alert the guards of lower standing to her presence. I… we can’t risk this getting out.”  
“What we can do now, though, is verify her story. Bring in a memory follower, a psychic. If they can confirm she isn’t lying, then we’ll know something for sure happened.”  
“Why are you so quick to defend a murderer? It’s a fact she killed those thirteen innocent people.”  
Cardinal glowered at me.  
“Her case was suspicious. It caught my attention.”  
“You mean you think she’s attractive?”  
I stood up.  
“Absolutely not. She is a suspected criminal under investigation. Besides, I simply found her case intriguing considering the emergency of it all and how little information we were given-”  
“Sure.”  
I glared at her, realizing she was teasing me in that vague, monotonous way.  
I sucked in a deep breath, just as Nassau taught me.  
“Someone’s puppeteering her. I am sure of it.”

\---------

JUPITER’S POV

My eyes blinked open kindly to the streaming sun of midday. Unfortunately, as great as the weather was, I was still unhappy.  
Every time I woke up around this Leviathan bitch I was in pain. This time, it sunk around my arm as an ache far deeper than the burns I had sustained. Oh, right. I did that.  
I sat up slowly, trying to take in the room around me. No one was in here.  
I could feel the inside of my arm shift. Eugh. I wasn’t ‘sposed to live to feel that.  
The room was a delicate mixture of browns and greens, dark wood walls lining the building and even darker wood making up the floorboards. I wasn’t upstairs anymore, I guessed, because the stairs seemed to be off in the corner now. A few bookshelves sat behind me… I was on a powdery green sofa that sat upon a forest green rug. The coffee table I had banged my fist on was made of resin and wood, a silky pattern in the bark it came from. I blinked lamely at it.  
God, I was fucking awful. I killed more people. More of them.  
I went to hold my head but was met with the bright, lovely feeling of fire blitzing up to my elbow.  
I don’t know if it’s possible to hate yourself as much as I do. I can’t think so.  
I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone.  
Never.  
And here I stand, the most prolific serial killer of my generation, the monster of the north, the bone chilling executioner, whatever such names given to me over the years. I laid back down and stared at the ceiling.  
I wish I could die over and over and over and over. Why wouldn’t they send me to prison? Why wouldn’t they just let me rot there? I just wanted to be punished for what I’d done. Who I’d hurt. And…  
Oh god. Vivian. My light.  
Supposedly I killed her too.  
What if I had? What if I’d made it all up?  
Why did Levi and Nassau save me?  
Why?  
Wooden footsteps echoed as someone descended the stairs. It was the owner of the house. They looked at me with a helluva lot of rage. I would too. I did too.  
“You. Out. As soon as Leviathan comes back, you’re leaving. I want you gone.”  
I didn’t respond. Why should I? Even I wanted me gone. It was then I reviewed my condition.  
Broken ankle. Covered in burns. Painful ass suicide attempt I hadn't meant to live through.  
And easily recognizable.  
They might as well just turn me in. I didn’t understand. I don’t understand.  
I realized I was hitting myself in the head. The owner of the house, whose name I never got, was making a face at me before storming back upstairs.  
Minutes passed before I heard the front door creak open.  
Leviathan stepped into the room, brushing herself off. She was still wearing the guard sanctioned hoodie on top of snow pants and boots, with her bodysuit underneath. She looked like the poster child for the guard. My worst nightmare. I suppose I should accept it now, being around guards.  
She came in silently, sitting down across from me, black mullet hanging over her eye.  
She put her reading glasses on, pulled out some files, and began reading. She read very quickly… scarily fast. I’ll admit, I’m not all that smart, but she certainly looked it.  
“Um… hello?”  
I mumbled, sitting up a little. I expected her to jump, but no, she just glanced up at me without a smile.  
“Ah, you’re alright.”  
“Unfortunately.”  
She glared at me, adjusting her glasses.  
“No, it’s good. I’m of the impression you are… not guilty in the slightest. I believe, even in prison, you were forced to-”  
She stopped herself.  
“I shouldn’t talk to you about that. I don’t need to upset you further.”  
She frowned, oddly empathetically. Genuine worry was plastered over her face and I wondered what I did to be in such good graces with a lieutenant.  
She looked back down at her book quickly, as though to end whatever connection we briefly shared.  
“We’re locating a memory consultant currently. Someone who specializes in exploring the consciousness themselves. They can look into your memories and determine the reality of them.”  
Huh?  
“That’s a thing?”  
I sputtered stupidly, shaking my head a little.  
“Oh, right. They didn’t use it in your case at all. I haven’t an idea why, you were only seventeen-”  
Something flashed by in my head. I wasn’t sure of it, but it was a man, with no other details. It lingered, a mess of black and static in my brain and a face I couldn’t see.  
“Jupiter?!”  
I blinked back to Leviathan shouting my name.  
“Huh?”  
“You… were spacing out. Are you alright?”  
“It’s nothing. It isn’t anything at all.”  
She paused before nodding, sighing gently and tilting her head at me… and just staring at me.  
“Need something, lieutenant?”  
I grumbled, staring back.  
“No. I’m just concerned for your sanity.”  
“Wow. How kind.”  
I set my head back down.  
The same footsteps trudged downstairs.  
“Levi, I have to have a word with you.”  
“Alright. What is it?”  
She said softly, closing her file and looking up to face the owner of the home.  
“You need to get her out. Now.”  
She looked taken aback.  
“Why would that be…?”  
“That… thing nearly bled herself out on the kitchen floor! That thing killed all those people? Who knows if I’m next?”  
“She wouldn’t hurt a fly, there's a reason she tried killing herself, Sayo.”  
Her voice became lower with growing rage.  
“I don’t care, man! She’s crazy! I want nothing to do with her, and I don’t want to be held accountable if the Feather District comes knocking-”  
“I can assure you it would be dealt with-”  
“I want her out, Levi. Take her back to the guard station. I’m giving you an hour and she better be gone or I’m contacting District of the Feather, and I mean that shit.”  
Levi looked aghast, hurt even. She slowly sat the files back in her bag before turning her attention to me.  
“Jupiter, I’ll be back in twenty minutes. I need to grab some things for you.”  
She stood up, raising her hand as a goodbye, and walked out the door. Sayo boiled nearby before going upstairs again.  
I laid back down and closed my eyes and imagined myself in the sea, sinking.

Some time passed before Leviathan came back, almost exactly twenty minutes. She entered with her bag, this time it being much larger, and sat next to me on the couch.  
“Alright. I brought a Horn District hoodie for you that the guards wear. I brought a hair tie to tie your hair back. Here’s a face mask to keep your face hidden. I also brought some nice pants to keep you warm. It’s rather cold right now and I don’t need you freezing on me… are you alright?”  
I realized I was crying.  
I reached up to my cheeks. There were a lot of tears.  
“Yeah. I’m fine.”  
And for a second, she smiled at me. It was brief, short, sweet. And then it faded back to her neutral expression.  
“Do you need assistance putting it on? I’m assuming your in pain and-”  
“No, I got it. It’s fine.”

\--------

LEVI’S POV

As we left Sayo’s home, I let Jupiter hold my shoulder due to the significant limp she was provided by the little injury to her ankle from her jump out the window.  
I wasn’t sure where to take her.  
I lived in the guard’s quarters, lieutenant’s getting their own rooms with bathrooms and a living area. Jupiter kept the hoodie up on her head. She was barely recognizable. I felt her shiver a little next to me.  
“Where are we going?”  
She said quietly, her Metyavskin accent seeping in every so slightly. Each step she took was nervous, and I could only assume this was because of her vulnerability with her injuries. Dr. Adrians had used an ointment in her wounds and burns that allowed them to heal quicker, a magical herbal paste I knew little about. Her ankle, though, would take a little longer. About a week for the burns, she said. Longer for her ankle. I realized that she hadn’t really eaten since I’d picked her up.  
“First, we’re getting food for you.”  
This caused her to freeze up a little, and I wasn’t sure why.  
“I’ll have to take my mask off.”  
“It’ll be fine. They’ll see you with me and assume it's alright.  
We walked up to a little marketplace where I often saw locals getting hearty sandwiches, lots of meats farmed locally. These were the preference of most of the cold Ellenridge citizens. I walked up to the sandwich stand. A dogmin stood at the counter. I ordered one sandwich, simple, some protein, and a warm tea. My own food sat in my satchel, provided by the government.  
We went to go sit at a snow covered picnic table. I brushed it off for Jupiter… and myself. I gestured politely for her to sit, and she did so, however nervously. I passed her the sandwich.  
“Eat. You must be starving.”  
She looked up at me for a second, something flashing in her eyes. Same upsetting look she got earlier when I mentioned the memory consultant and she “spaced out.”  
“No… I’m not hungry.”  
I frowned.  
“Jupiter, eat.”  
“I said I’m not hungry.”  
She got more insistent, and I got angrier.  
“Listen, you have to eat or you’ll-”  
I trailed off, grunting in frustration. That's what she wants. The stubborn bimbo is still at it.  
“Jupiter, would you like to be taken to the hospital and have food pumped into you?”  
That scared her real quick.  
“N...no.”  
“Then please, try to eat.” I spoke, exasperation in my voice.  
She slowly unwrapped her sandwich, took off her mask, and began to eat. She took only small bites and seemed to swallow them as quickly as possible. I took a moment to pull the blood pack out of my bag, and opened the valve and began to drink it.  
She stopped eating, looking at me and snorting.  
“If I’d known you ate that, I would’ve let you feast on my arm yesterday-”  
My head swung around, eyes narrowed. She shut up quick with a small “sorry.”  
I guess I hadn’t told her I was a vampire, and she was too up in her head to notice. I continued to suckle on my blood pack. It wasn’t humanoid blood, but it’d do.  
I looked over, and she had set down her half a sandwich and began drinking her tea.  
“That’s all you wanted to eat?”  
“Maybe! I told you, I’m not hungry!”  
Concern was growing in me. I wondered what made her so skinny if not being able to eat… why wasn’t she pouncing on the free food? What a bizarre person.  
I finished up my blood pack as she finished her tea.  
“You know, I only eat like, a couple times a week.”  
I turned my head to her, incredulous.  
“What?”  
“I rarely eat. I don’t like it. It… feels wrong.”  
She got that look in her eye again. I directed her to put her mask back on and throw away the rest of her sandwich if she wasn't going to eat anymore. She did so, silently, and it was the first she’d been this quiet in a while. I looked up to the pale gray sky. Cloud cover had come over us, and I could see my breath. It was going to get colder.  
I heard someone approaching fast behind.  
“LEVIATHAN-”  
I froze where I stood. Jupiter did the same.  
I knew who that was. Turning slowly, I made eye contact with him.  
“Ah, Nimuel. Good to see you.”  
Nimuel was a lower ranking guard, only nineteen years old and transferred in from District of the Talon. He seemed to have taken a shine to me. I called him Nim for short.  
“Who ya got as your friend here?”  
“Ah… um… Nim, this is….”  
“It’s Jupiter.”  
She said plainly, not removing her hood. Her hand did not move to shake his.  
Nim was a little fluffy haired demon kid. He was pretty short, pretty scrawny, but was really invested in the work he did as a guard here.  
“Jupiter, cool, cool. Hey, did you see-”  
“Nim, do you know anywhere Jupiter could stay the night?”  
“Can she not stay at the guard station?”  
“She’s… frightened of it.”  
“Oh… um… What about your friend from secondary school? The lady who drops by sometimes?”  
That gave me pause. Really. Should I really get her involved in this? Could she fully be trusted? I turned to Jupiter, then back to Nim.  
“Thank you. I’ll be dropping her off now. I’ll see you at the guard station, Nim.”  
I ruffled his hair and sent him off. He was quick to listen. Naïve at best. 

\------

JUPITER’S POV

We spent the rest of the afternoon strolling around town, probably making our way to wherever I was staying next.  
I didn’t have much energy today. It was hard to walk, even if I didn’t have a broken ankle. Everything felt so…. numb though. Even the physical pain I felt around me almost felt like nothing. I didn’t care that I hurt. In fact, I liked it.  
The holidays were around, the winter ones where religious folk celebrated the gods and the rest of us simply made an excuse to celebrate or reconsider their own beliefs. It was a yearly thing, and I’d always spent a lot of money on this holiday as a kid.  
I remember one year, I sewed a blue flannel for Vivian. She wore it everyday after that. I wish I had gotten it back.  
Now, looking around, it felt hard to feel anything other than suffering. Despite the multicolored lights and decorations, I was uninterested. In my language the holiday translated to “Winter of the Gods,” but I was unsure exactly of what the people of the Horn District called it.  
Leviathan was right next to me the whole time. I reviewed the moment we shared earlier.  
Not once in seven years had I felt cared about. I didn’t deserve to, but it still felt nice. She was concerned about me getting cold… but I’m a beast that ravages the lives of the innocent, and still, she worried of keeping me warm.  
I couldn’t understand. I wouldn’t understand.  
She never turned to look at me, gaze fixed forward, but occasionally would reach her hand to my shoulder to double check I was alright. She took my lack of response to be a confirmation. I didn’t care either way. She didn’t need to be doting on me or something. Waste of her time.  
We left the area of Ellenridge that was mostly marketplaces and shops and began entering a neighborhood. The homes here were not small nor grand, but seemed large enough to comfortable house a family.  
Every now and again my thoughts were interrupted by the stinging of the giant laceration in my arm. I hoped we’d be there soon. I simply couldn’t keep walking much longer.  
It began to snow a little.  
It reminded me of home.  
My eyes began to water. All I could think of was my parents and Vivian, and how much I missed them. But they didn’t want me around.  
Especially not my family.  
When I had escaped prison, I had returned, expecting to see them happy I was home. Instead, I was greeted with the nasty end of a hunting rifle and my mother screaming about the “creature of the midwinter” being at the door. I thought they didn’t recognize me.  
They did.  
They just hated me.  
I think Levi has some kind of twitch that vibrates with the emotions of others or something, because she turned to me, speaking softly as to avoid startling me.  
“Jupiter… are you alright?”  
“I told you I’m fine.”  
My tone came off more angry than I had anticipated, but it didn't matter. Nothing really mattered.  
We stopped in front of a door with scuffs on it, burn marks, and even graphite. The mailbox was left open and filled with unopened letters, the windows covered in paper in some spots. I was immediately uneasy.  
“Don’t worry. She’s… not dangerous. Mostly.”


	4. strange (chapter three)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW// Self-harm, violence

LEVI’S POV

The door swung open with a thud, slamming against the wrought iron lining the doorstep.   
“LEEEEVIIIIIII!!!!”  
There she was. My best friend from secondary school. Standing on her doorstep, waving her hands like a maniac.   
She could be quite annoying...most of the time.  
She stood at an average height, raccoon ears swiveling to pick up all the noises she was receiving, her tail swaying behind her.   
Kandi, the official Alchemist of the Horn District was a hybrid of an animaliamin and a human; a bombastic raccoon girl with what I considered to be a questionable fashion sense. Today, she donned a short, poofy dress with a pale grey cardigan over it. She pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose and grinned, waving for us to come inside as soon as she finished her little excited motions. Jupiter seemed scared. I was too, when I first met her. She’s a lot to handle.  
I made sure not to touch the door on the way in. It was covered in ink and charcoal. Jupiter followed, needing slight assistance up the front steps. The door slammed behind the two of us.   
Her house was the messiest ball of junk I’d ever seen, as per usual. She led us to what you might refer to as her living room, with a beige sofa and a brown rug and a wooden table. Only the stacks of files, papers, and assorted books made it hard to step in there, and it made it a struggle to navigate around. Jupiter was clearly unsettled. Kandi spun on her stocking heels.  
“Soooooooo who's this?”  
She said, leaning forward to Jupiter and inspecting her closely.   
“Yeah, I can’t see much. Hey person, would you mind removing your clothes?”  
“Kandi.”  
“Not all of them! We just met, c’mon-”   
“Kandi.”   
Jupiter pulled down her hood and took off her mask. Kandi did not react.  
“Oh. You brought me the beast of the north? What for? We doin’ research? Picking her brain? What’s the deal?”  
“No, Kandi. We’re investigating her case.”  
I surveyed the walls and shelves. More objects lay strewn about and more writing scrawled upon the walls than last time. Alchemic circles drawn in chalk on the wooden floorboards, magical items, empty bottles and full ones all decorated this establishment. Kandi turned on her heels again, moving some books and papers arbitrarily.  
“I thought her case was set in stone? Like, we were just trying to bring her in.”  
“I’ve changed my mind after reviewing her behavioral profile and comparing it to her real behavior...and after hearing her accounts of what really happened.”  
“You didn’t catch a lie?”  
“Not so.”  
Kandi plopped the objects down and turned again to face her.  
“You’re a sorcerer, right?”  
She said, grinning and leaning in.  
Jupiter stepped back and nearly tripped.  
“Um… yes, but like, don’t touch-”  
Too late. Kandi had already pulled Jupiter’s hands into hers and began examining them. It was the first time I’d really looked at them myself, and by god, were they a mess. They were heavily scarred, deep burns that painted themselves across her hands. They looked to be varying ages, some a few years, some new. That reminded me, I had taken her rings and odd gloves when I had taken her in since she’d burned them. I should give them back.  
Jupiter snapped her hands away from Kandi, looking her up and down with angry vigor.  
“Wow, aren’t you pissy. You remind me of someone-”  
Kandi said, elbowing me a little. It jostled me.  
“No, I just…”  
I could feel something change in her.  
“I don’t like being touched, okay?”  
Every little shift Jupiter had was strange, just as her whole was strange. It always seemed to be innocuous things, like eating and touch and eye contact. Kandi turned to me.  
“So, why are we re-investigating her case again? I wasn’t paying attention.”  
I sighed, and explained everything to her. Jupiter stood blank-faced nearby, staring at the floor and at her feet.   
“So… you think someone sent her to prison despite her not doing squat?”  
“That’s correct.”  
“Hell yeah, she can stay, she just can’t touch anything too pertinent-”  
Jupiter did not respond. I was growing concerned.  
“Jupiter?”  
I spoke, turning to face her. She glanced up for a moment then back down, saying nothing.  
“You’re going to stay with Kandi while I find a memory consultant or a psychic… I won’t leave just yet, unfortunately you aren’t able to leave, and you do in fact need some rest I’d assume. That is what Dr. Adrians said.”  
I gestured between the two of them as I spoke. Jupiter still wouldn’t reply.   
“Ooooooh, you talked with Dr. Adrians? Why?”  
Kandi spoke excitedly.   
“She hurt herself.”  
“Oh, like by accident? It’s okay, I do that all the-”  
Jupiter interrupted her by making unusually hard eye contact and rolling up her sleeve and pointing to the heavy bandage work stretching up to her elbow. This seemed to unease Kandi.  
“Um… wow, okay. Didn’t realize I was watching someone… self destructive.”  
“You two fit together.”  
“Well, I do it for science not cuz-”  
She turned to Jupiter.  
“Uhh… what madeya do that again?”  
“I killed people. In prison.”  
“Oh. Fun. Anyway,”  
Kandi swapped back to me, no worry written on her face about her own well-being, unlike Sayo, who had looked violently uncomfortable every time they were in the same room as Jupiter.   
“I can watch her, sure. I won’t let her leave! I’ll make sure she gets plenty of rest so that she doesn’t-”  
“That’s enough, Kandi.”  
She waved a flippant, dirty hand.   
“Whatever, whatever. Okay Jupiter, it’s you and me! Against the universe!”  
Jupiter seemed too tired for this shit. It was somewhat sad. Since we’d informed her of the cullings, she had gone rather drab. She rubbed an eye with her better arm and sat down on the sofa with an exasperated sigh. I waved, leaving the two of them to each other.  
I hope that I come back to two living people. Knowing them, it may be unlikely.

\-----------

JUPITER’S POV

Every bone in my body was a goddamn dumbbell. Especially my owl-forsaken arm. This girl, Kandi, was excitedly walking toward me. I didn’t feel like looking at her.   
“I like your hair, Jupiter! That is your name, right?”  
Oh fucking christ, I could foresee her not leaving me alone.  
“It’s so yellow, so bright, so-”  
“Hair. It’s hair.”  
“Well, yeah, but mine’s grey. C’mon, yours is cooler.”  
She laughed a little, sitting down next to me, her short and puffy dress floating after her. It caught my attention. Clothes always did.  
“Oh, so you like my dress.”  
I nodded slowly, pointing slightly as though to ask if I could look closer.  
“Yeah, of course, take a closer look my fine friend! Anything for a friend of Levi’s!”   
I picked up the soft fabric gently and rubbed it in my hands. It’d been so long since I’d had an opportunity to stay in one place long enough to make something. I didn’t realize how long I’d been inspecting it until Kandi spoke up.  
“Hey, you having fun?”  
I dropped it, scooting away a little. Her tail flicked behind her.   
“Sorry.”  
“Hey, no, no worries. You seemed pretty into it. What’s that about?”  
“Do you make your own clothes? I haven’t seen a stitch like this…”  
“Oh, my mom makes them for me and sends them to me in the mail. She’s really good...hey, whaddya mean by stitch?”  
“Oh, it’s just...this pattern is unusual, especially of a simple dress like this. Does she make more complicated-”  
“OHHHHHHHHHH You make clothes, don’t you? That’s how you know!”   
I blinked at her.  
“Congratulations. You guessed it. Yeah, I used to.”  
“Why not now?”  
“Well, you see, I am doing a little thing called being on the run from the guards all day, it’s real hard to get the money and time to make dresses and-”  
“You have time now!”  
Pause.  
“Oh. I guess I do…”  
“Here, I might have some stuff lying around. I’ll go look. You can stay here.”  
She disappeared round the corner of a messy ass pile of shit. I glanced at the front door.  
If I could just leave, it’d be for the best, I don’t deserve care, I don’t deserve to live-  
I approached as quickly as I could, reaching for the doorknob. There was a sudden touch to my shoulder, and my body turned slowly to face her.  
“Sorry, but I can’t letcha do that. Levi said so. She’s kinda like my boss. And my best friend.”  
I smiled at her. It must have been unnatural because she began to laugh.  
“Alright, yeah, let’s get you sitting down. I couldn’t find any fabric because I got distracted by this-”  
Her hand thrusted forward, and she was holding a small vial with black liquid in it.  
“I dunno what it is, but can you test it for me?”  
Sure. Whatever, if it kills me that’s a win.   
I chugged it quickly. She watched with excitement.   
Something was dribbling down my face. She was still grinning. I brought my hand to my cheek and pulled it away to reveal a grainy, black ink-like substance. It was pouring out of my eyes.   
I kinda smiled at her.   
“Cool.”  
“ISN’T IT?! I didn’t know what it did but it seems to have created something with your bodily fluids-”  
I leaned back and let it drip off my face and onto the couch.   
“Sure did.”  
I sat in silence, kinda disappointed it didn’t just...y’know, kill me.  
Kandi immediately picked up some chalk and began scrawling on the walls. I guess because of the small amount of liquid in the vial, the liquid flowing from my eyes stopped. I wiped the remainder of it from my cheeks, and smeared it on the couch, expecting some response from Kandi. Nothing. She just kept on writing away. I watched for a while, not understanding a lick of what she was scribbling. I probably should have paid more attention in my science classes or whatever.   
“What did you uh… make that stuff out of?”   
“Oh, just some berries with magical properties and sorcerers blood-”  
“I’m...I’m sorry, what did you say?”  
“The berries?”  
“No, the other thing…”  
“The sorcerer blood?”  
“Yeah…”  
“Oh, yeah, most people don’t know. Ya see, sorcerer blood can be ingested to heighten magical powers… but too concentrated and you get this weird sticky, grainy black substance. Sometimes it takes over entire organisms-”   
“So you just tried to turn me into a fuckin’ blob or something?”   
“Well, not necessarily…”  
I stared at her with my jaw dropped to the floor.  
“I’m not drinking any more of your stuff.”  
“Why?”  
“Because if it won’t kill me and just fucks with me, I’m not interested.”  
“Wow, you’re drab.”  
I shrugged my shoulders. What could I do? Those people I murdered deserved justice.  
“Anyway, you should get some sleep. Having a big hole in your arm is a little tiring. And probably sucks.”  
She grinned at me, tail swishing away, ears perked. I rolled my eyes. Guess Levi was rubbing off on me.  
“Do I just sleep here..? Or…”  
“No, no, silly, I have a guest room for you! Follow me upstairs-”  
She leapt off the sofa, hitting the floor with a thud and started running up the stairs.  
The longer I stayed alive and awake, the worse I felt.   
I pushed myself up, pain searing up my ankle and my arm. I shuffled over to the stairwell, looking up the wooden steps.   
“Ya coming up or what?”  
She shouted from above. I sighed, slowly pulling myself up each individual stair, trying to keep my ankle from making much contact with the ground.   
By the time I got up there, she was already leading me by the hand down the hall, to the left and into a room.   
It was a smallish room, with a queen-sized bed with a hefty quilt as the cover. It looked comfortable enough. This room seemed to have become storage for more books, objects, cases, and other assorted trinkets she hoarded. She began carrying some out while I took the time to sit down on the bed. A small window peeked out into the outside world. I missed being free. But y’know, I deserved this. This is what I deserved. Really. I cannot think of a worse person than myself. I’m absolutely fucking disgusting.  
Kandi snapped me out of thoughts with a literal snap, before retracting it.  
“Oh, I’d ask you to like, help me, except you probably shouldn’t, having tried to off yourself and all, and who could blame you! I’d be pretty upset if I found out I’d murdered thirty-eight people in-”  
She trailed off, seeing the horrified expression on my face. I couldn’t keep it inside. My hands slowly came to my mouth, covering it lightly, and I instantly began to weep, tears spilling down my face in a rushing wave.  
“Oh… did you not know?”  
I shook my head no, only small noises able to escape my mouth. I sucked in a breath and then slammed my bad foot down as hard as I could onto the floorboards till I heard another snap, similar to the one I’d heard two days ago.   
Oh, fucking owl above it hurt.  
But I deserved every feeling.  
I threw myself up on the ankle, hearing a grinding noise, presumably a snapped bone pushing past another splinter. I looked around at the room, sweating. Before I knew it, I was knocking over piles of books, papers, kicking trinkets, all the while hearing my ankle make odd noises while the immense pain I felt in it shot up my entire leg. I charged at the wall, smashing my head into it as hard as I could.  
“Woah, hey, um, Jupiter, holy shit, um-”  
My fist began to crackle to life, sparks flying violently off the surface of my flesh and burning it. I thrust it into the wall, smoke emanating from the force of my punch.   
“JUPITER-”  
I turned to face her, panting, sweating, drenched in the feeling of dread and hatred. Hatred of myself.  
“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?”  
She quietly pointed at the wall where a fire began to spread. I put my hands on it, pushing them down to quiet the flames and keep it from spreading farther. The smell of burning flesh rose from the shrine my hands formed on the wall, a triangle structured to put out the damage I caused.  
If only I could stop the damage I had already caused. I wish I could bring everyone back. I wish I could bring everybody back, everyone I hurt, even if it meant losing myself and losing Vivian too.   
I really was the beast of the north, the monster who slaughtered for pleasure.  
But I didn’t want to do it.  
I took no pleasure in it.  
I wanted to draw a line across my throat deep like a river, and allow my blood to spill out and undo all the destruction I’d caused.   
I felt a hand on my shoulder.  
“The fire’s out.”  
I looked up at the wall, feeling my knees trembling. It was out. And a little flesh slipped to the ground, blackened and fleshy. I looked at my hands, darkened with ash and singe.   
“I gotta have something for this in the bathroom, I’ll be right back-”  
She rushed out of the room, her stocking feet sliding along.   
I stared where she had left. I looked outside.   
I felt everything and nothing at once.

\-------

LEVI’S POV

Finding a memory consultant turned out to be harder than we had anticipated. Working closely with Commander Nassau, we searched all the districts for a psychic who specialized in memories...that didn’t have a bias towards Jupiter’s case. We had it narrowed down to three, but the first two were vehemently against working with someone of the sort and hung up the call on us. I closed the flip phone. We had two methods of communications. Mist spheres, which produced video for communications amongst our channel, and in Commander Nassau and I’s case, it extended to other channels through the Horn District. The other method was these kinds of metal flip phones that used magic to send signals between them. This was for inter-district communications. We couldn’t tell the other districts what we needed the psychic for, only that we did and the information was classified. When we were put in contact, they were sworn to secrecy and we asked them if they’d be willing to inspect Jupiter’s memory. We were oft told no.  
I was beginning to call the third, when Nassau entered and sat on the table next to me.   
I was calling the Fin District, because they had a number of fae who all had some sort of psychic and charming ability that could absolutely be of use to us.   
Nassau nodded at me as I began to speak with the other district.   
Within minutes, we had located someone. Her name was Tayami Hattori and she was 19, an active memory consultant in the cases the Fin District handled. She had just graduated secondary school and already begun her career as a professional psychic. Supposedly, she was incredibly talented, even more so than fae typically are. She was granted permission to board the district liner, and would be arriving within the next day.   
I took the free time to check on how Jupiter and Kandi were faring. Knowing them, they may have killed each other already.   
I arrived at her home, knocking on the door. My boots kept my feet safe from the cold.  
When Kandi opened the door, she looked a little frazzled.   
“Oh, thank god you’re here. Um… I made a mistake-”  
“What did you do now?”  
“I accidentally may have told Ms. Jupiter how many people she killed-”  
“You...what?”  
“-in prison.”  
I immediately strode past her, into the house and up the stairs. She must have been following me, because I heard her light footsteps behind me. I peeked into the guest room.  
Jupiter was laying on the bed, still and unmoving. Her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. She did not respond to me entering.  
“Jupiter..?”  
I tried to keep my voice low. She was already unstable. If she perceived distress in me it would hurt her more. I knew how this worked.   
I’d lived it before.  
I entered slowly, keeping my steps light and standing next to her bedside.   
“We found a memory consultant. They’ll be here tomorrow.”  
Jupiter’s head lolled to the side. She blinked slowly at me, bags having begun to form under her eyes. Her appearance was that of misery. I looked over at her hands and saw them bandaged.   
“What happened to your hands..?”  
She rolled her head back over, away from me.   
“Ask her.”  
She said, pointing lamely at Kandi who stood in the doorway.  
“Oh, after I told her about...the thing, she flipped out and set the wall on fire. Then she put it out with her bare hands. So I tried to clean them up-”  
I stared incredulously back at Jupiter. What was it with her and placing her hands on fire? Like she was used to it-  
I remembered her hands, as we had inspected them earlier. They were burn scars.   
“Jupiter, why are your hands so… scarred?”  
Her position did not change, and she did not turn to face me.   
“Electricity still burns me, you know. A fire sorcerer will have their hands burnt. A sorcerer of death will feel emptiness as they use their abilities. It’s just how it is.”  
“So you’re used to the feeling?”  
“Enough that it stopped bugging me when the skin started falling off my hands.”  
I must’ve made a face, because it made her laugh. It was nice, hearing her laugh. It meant something was bright enough in this dim time for her.  
She sat up a little, seeming to put some strain on herself as she did. I sat down at the foot of the bed.  
“I have a question, Jupiter.”  
“Mm.”  
“Where did the scar under your eye come from? It’s quite a nasty mark-”  
“Can’t remember.”  
“What?”  
“I don’t remember. I didn’t have it when I was a kid, I went to prison, and when I first looked at myself after escaping, there it was.”  
She touched a bandaged finger to it, feeling it gently as though she really tried to remember. We sat in silence for a few moments, all thinking about what it was and how it got there. I could only assume she got it in prison...and she was supposedly involved in a lot of prison fights, so it only made sense-  
“Do you ever wonder why you can’t remember something? You can try all you want but all you get is a black screen...and sometimes, you think you see something in the dark, but then it’s gone again and you’re left alone standing amongst what you can remember and feeling like something really important is missing?”  
She finally turned to me. Her voice was surprisingly level for her, and the words she spoke were the most intelligent thing I’d heard her say since I’d met her, which didn’t take much.   
“No. That doesn’t happen to most people.”  
“Huh. Okay.”  
She finished that without another thought, looking down at her wrapped hands and fiddling with her fingers. She seemed to get that blank expression on her face again, before shaking her head lightly and looking back up at me.  
“The memory consultant… can they unlock old memories?”  
“I don’t know if any of them have ever had to.”  
I tilted my head at her, leaning a little closer.  
“Jupiter, I am of the impression you are a very unique and special person. Your life has been bizarre and unfathomable to most, and it seems that your personality is constantly changing too…”  
She shrugged, scratching the back of her neck.  
“I don’t know who I am either, if that’s what you mean.”  
A quiet lulled over all of us again, hovering in the air with a density I couldn’t quite place. The more I learned of Jovana Malcović, the more bizarre it got. A woman who was found in a church fire, cannot remember a large portion of her young life, and with a personality and behavior that seemed to change from moment to moment. When we had first encountered, she had been snide, almost cunning, and very egotistical. But as she sat before me now, she was small, afraid, and certainly not all that bright. She had emotional issues. She couldn’t handle what she was given, despite supposedly being a serial killer, a psychopath of the highest order. She needed help.   
I think I had begun to care about this Jupiter.   
I wanted to see to it that she got better, that she’d find her place and remember what she needed to. I wanted her to prosper. I hadn’t known her long, but seeing someone in such a dark and dismal place was enough to spark empathy within me.   
I wanted to know more.   
“Jupiter, what do you like? For instance, what do you do with your time when you aren’t… on the run?”  
“Oh, oh, I know the answer!”  
Kandi finally spoke up, waving her arm in the air similarly to an excitable primary school student.   
Jupiter looked embarrassed.  
“She makes clothes! She’s really smart about it, she was talking about the stitch in my dress and she knew it was homemade and-”  
Kandi chattered on, and Jupiter looked down and to the side.  
“I also...I like… You know what, why am I telling you?! You shouldn’t know this about me, you’re just trying to get me sent to prison, I don’t deserve to be happy so why should I tell you about the things that do make me happy?”  
I leaned back a little in response to this outburst.   
“Jupiter, you know I’m here to help you. I have repeatedly told you that I do not believe you are culpable in these deaths, one way or another. Your behavior doesn’t verify it at all-”  
“You fuckers lie anyway.”  
She spat, her accent lingering on her tongue.  
“What makes you think we lie, Jupiter?”  
“When you asses picked me up after I killed those people back home, they told me they believed me, that it wasn’t my fault. But they lied.”  
“They told you that?”  
“Yeah, but then they said to “run it by their boss” or something, and then suddenly they changed their minds-”  
Could this be the person behind it all? Is this...  
“So… do you know who this boss is?”  
She got that blank look on her face again. Empty, not in the moment, away from this scape of existence.   
“Jupiter?”  
“I’m sorry, I, um, can’t really remember.”  
That was...suspicious. Why could she remember other guards and not their boss?  
“What do you remember about them?”  
“They smiled at me.”  
“That’s it?”  
“Yeah.”  
I looked at her, and something began to gnaw at me deep inside. Something was very wrong.   
I quickly gathered my things.  
“Jupiter, I’ll be back. I’m going to go look for some files, but I’ll come back to keep watch over you… and Kandi.”  
Kandi waved me off as I hurried out of her home. Jupiter said nothing as I left, but laid back down and continued observing the ceiling.   
When I reached the guard station, I swung the door into Commander Nassau’s office open with a crash.  
“Nassau?”  
“Goddamn, Levi. Calm down. What the hell is it?”  
His voice was too relaxed for the information I just learned, the information I was so close to.   
“I may have just been given a suspect in Jupiter’s case. She… provided some crucial information.”  
“And that would be..?”  
“The guards originally believed Jupiter’s story but their boss may have convinced them otherwise. I need the file on the Captain of the forces in Crovoska.”  
“Really! Well, hell, I’ll get that for you-”  
He turned around to the cabinets filled with files we shared with other districts. The higher ranking guards were all kept on record. We’d find him.  
“Ah, here it is-”  
He said, pulling out the files of the Captain’s of the Crovoska guard. He passed it to me, grinning.  
“There ya go, kid. Tell me what it says,”  
My finger slid between the folder, and I opened it up, flipping to the correct year. Seven years ago.  
What I saw shocked me.  
There was nothing there, except the words [FILE REMOVED PER REQUEST.]  
“Nassau..? There’s nothing here.”  
“Wh-? Gimme that-”  
He reached over and took it from me, holding it up to read it.   
“What in the Sam hell?”  
“How did the file get removed?!”  
“This is… incredibly unusual. Files can only be revoked like this by people incredibly high up… like the Feather Republic.”  
“That high up?”  
“Yeah.”  
I crossed my arms, frowning. I had been so close.  
“What’s the reasoning usually?”  
“Well, with the Feather Republic, you never know.”  
“Is it a cover up?”  
“Could be.”  
He passed the file back to me. He seemed pretty beaten up about this too. I pocketed the file.   
“Is there any way we could call the Feather District and ask if they could tell us?”  
“If the file was removed from that high up, just about everyone is gonna’ have a gag order. But it bugs me…”  
He sat on the desk.   
“Why remove a captain? They ain’t usually the type to cause issues.”  
I hate not knowing. I hated not having an idea of why things like this happened. I had never seen a file be removed before.  
I retired to my satchel, slinging it over my shoulder.   
I would find this out. Somehow.


	5. remember (chapter 4)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The memory consultant arrives. TW// Major gore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DM me @cryptillii with any questions you have :)

JUPITER’S POV

I didn’t sleep at all last night. Leviathan had returned and told me the file on the person I couldn’t remember was missing. I struggled the entire time to remember who, who, who that was, but all I could come up with was a smile. A white-toothed, bright smile.  
Levi strolled in early the next morning, fretting that she’d woken me when I hadn’t closed my eyes at all last night.  
“Your eyes… did you sleep?”  
“No.”  
She frowned at me, considering everything that was going on. She never ended up saying anything, but she did slip on her reading glasses and begin brooding over files. I sat up a little, the weight of exhaustion working with gravity to keep me tethered to the bed.  
“Isn’t someone coming to see me today?”  
“Yes, a memory consultant.”  
Leviathan didn’t look up from her files, licking her finger to turn the pages.  
“What… does that mean?”  
“It means someone is coming to check your memories to see if your story about the explosion is true.”  
“And if it isn’t?”  
“Well, then we’ll be taking you in.”  
As much as the thought frightened me, I knew I probably deserved it. It made sense for me to go back to being punished for what I’d done. But my story was true… so I wouldn’t be punished.  
“A-actually Levi, I lied about it all.”  
She looked up for a moment, expression unchanging.  
“Why?”  
“Because… um…I… was trying to-”  
“That’s what I thought. You wouldn’t admit to lying if you really were. It isn’t your personality. We’re still checking your memoryscape.”  
“Wh… what does that include?”  
“Not sure yet. That’s for Ms. Tayami to tell us. We don’t oft do this for cases.”  
Seconds ticked by, turning into minutes and into hours. I didn’t move. But… I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up to Leviathan standing over me.  
“Jupiter, I have someone I’d like you to meet.”  
The commander of the guard strolled in with a young woman behind him. She was younger than me. She wore sleeves that rolled way past her hands and her… kimono? was tied back with a large bow. She wore skin-tight shorts underneath and sandals. I glanced up to face her, rubbing sleep from my eyes.  
“How… how long was I out?”  
“A few hours. This is Ms. Tayami.”  
“Please, call me just Tayami.”  
She smiled warmly. Neither of her eyes were.. open. One of them was covered with an eyepatch, the other shut. I wondered how she could possibly see at all.  
“Oh, I can’t.”  
I jumped. Tayami giggled.  
“I can read minds. That’s what I do.”  
I blinked up at her and thought to myself. So you’re the real deal, huh?  
A moment of silence and then her voice echoed in my skull.  
The real deal.  
“My apologies, are you two… talking to each other?”  
Leviathan spoke, confused. Tayami nodded at her, black hair swishing. She turned back to me.  
“Jupiter. You have something very bad inside of you.”  
Well, that was startling to hear.  
She looked at me with an intense glare, well, if you could call it looking with a closed eye.  
“I hope I can address it.”  
Her hands clapped together abruptly, and she smiled at Leviathan, who seemed to be a little bit confused by all of this.  
“Shall we begin?”  
“Uh, yeah. Sure.”  
She smiled, keeping her hands clasped together.  
“Alright! Here’s how it works.”  
She took a deep breath.  
“When I open my eye, and look into yours, you will fall asleep, and as will I. This means we have formed a connection and I am entering your memoryscape. The memoryscape can be dangerous, so if there is any sign of a bad memory taking over, please attempt to wake me up. Once in the memoryscape, I will talk with you, the you inside yourself, and we will discuss what we will do next. Does that sound alright?”  
“My apologies… you said it was dangerous?”  
She nodded quickly in response to Levi.  
“Very rarely, but sometimes when individuals have undergone trauma to a severe extent, their memories can become dangerous to those who enter, mostly because they remain dangerous to the individual as well. Due to the fact I can sense something… malicious in the back of our friend’s mind, I will take extra precaution.”  
“And… what are the signs of danger?”  
Nassau piped up, holding his finger in the air.  
“Have you ever seen someone having a nightmare? It’s like that.”  
Leviathan and Nassau didn’t seem satisfied by this answer but didn’t press any further.  
I thought this was a load of horseshit. Really? Dangerous memories? My life wasn’t that bad, other than Viv’s death and the people I brutally murdered-  
I rolled my eyes, (again, I’m spending too much time with Levi,) and crossed my arms. I pulled my Horn District hoodie sleeve down a little to scratch at my bandages. God, it was annoying.  
Tayami glanced at me for a moment, freezing when she saw my arm, and began to exchange whispers with Leviathan.  
“What?”  
“Nothing. Just a question.”  
Tayami beamed back at me, looking rather pleased with herself.  
“Alright. Now, Jupiter, look at my eye. Look very closely.”  
I squinted at where her eye was not covered with an eyepatch. Apparently this made Levi snort.  
“Ready?”  
“Um, you know what, maybe-”  
And she opened her eye before I could look away. It was a flash of white that faded to grey then to black. 

\-------

THE MEMORYSCAPE (NO POV)

Tayami’s eye fluttered open. She found herself sitting in the center of a plush-carpeted room with its own fireplace to the side. The bookshelves were filled more with objects for sewing and trinkets than books (and the books that were present were collecting dust.) The carpet was delicately soft, squishy, with a bounce to it. A deep ebony, matching the trim of the walls painted a bright crimson. Tayami ran her fingers across the floor, feeling the safety and comfort present in this room. This bedroom had a heartbeat of its own despite the pounding snow outside the window to her left. She slowly got to her feet, brushed herself off, and turned toward the bed.  
Jupiter wiped her eyes. She was in the outfit she had designed for herself after her escape, a lacey white poofy sleeved button up with a large bow surrounding a gem of stolen turquoise at the neck. Her princely shorts, pinstriped, were suspended to her shoulders, and the rings and gloves on her hands were quickly reviewed by her heterochromatic eyes. Her bright yellow hair was done up in the typical, cat-ears, messy bun style. Tayami was pleasantly surprised.  
“You look wonderful, Jupiter.”  
“Oh, can you see me now?”  
“I can only see when visiting people's dreams and memories. It’s an unfortunate side effect of my abilities.”  
“So… what now?”  
Jupiter’s voice was uncertain, skeptical. She didn’t seem to look away from Tayami, making little eye contact.  
“I look through your memories… they should be around here somewhere… Where are we, anyway?”  
“My… childhood home. Back in the Feather District.”  
“I see.”  
Tayami began approaching the front wall. Pictures lined it. Childhood memories, playing in the woods, making food with mom, drawing together all featured the same little girl as well as Jupiter. As Jupiter grew in age, so did this girl, scruffy brown hair held down by a blue beanie. Freckles covered every inch of her skin and her ears, fuzzy and pointed were undeniably those of a werewolf. It didn’t matter what they were doing, but in every memory, it seemed her and Jupiter were together. Even sleeping next to each other. Jupiter wouldn’t look up.  
“Who is this, Jupiter?”  
“Vivian.”  
“Who is she?”  
“Only person who ever really loved me.”  
Tayami pulled a photo off the wall and began inspecting it closer. They were so happy together. A memory began to play.  
It was them, roughly age seven, in the snowy wilderness playing knight and princess, Vivian brandishing a stick as her trusty blade. The energy in it was that of extreme affection, regardless of what kind. She set the memory back on the wall and picked up another.  
They were older now, maybe sixteen or seventeen, and they were sharing the bed Jupiter sat on in that moment, wrapped up in each other and sleeping soundly… except Jupiter slept with an eye open, always watching her ‘friend.’ It seemed as time went on, it was more than friends. The closeness felt in each photo frame was unbearable. It was the love between two people, raw and uncut, fully accepting each other for who they were.  
Jupiter began to cry.  
“Please put it back.”  
Tayami obliged. Though, one photo caught her attention. It was simply a red image. The color red. Her hand moved to pull it off the wall, but a cry stopped her.  
“Don’t… touch that one.”  
Tayami turned around.  
“Why not?”  
“I’m sick of remembering it.”  
“Does it have to do with your case?”  
Jupiter nodded, covering her face and groaning.  
“Get it over with.”  
She said from beneath her hands, sniffling.  
Tayami plucked it off the wall.  
Suddenly, she was standing in front of an elegant front door, slightly ajar.  
That’s strange. Tayami thought to herself. Rarely are memories so clear…  
Without her moving them, her feet inched forward, pushing down on the slush on the doorstep. The door creaked open with a bone-chilling sound. As she stepped inside, she looked to the back of the house to see a man in front of the back door. Large coat, heavy duty. His face was uncovered. He’d thought no one would be home for a while. Quickly, he covered his face with a mask and hurried out the back door.  
And then Tayami’s view shifted down.  
There she was.  
Vivian Westerfield was dead on the ground.  
The slit in her throat was so wide it nearly severed her head. Tears began dribbling down foreign cheeks. Tayami was frightened.  
Blood was still running out onto the floor. Tayami’s body moved to shake Vivian. Hands that were not hers began pushing against Vivian violently, and a voice rang out “WAKE UP- PLEASE WAKE UP-”  
After her host realized it was futile, she simply wept and moved to lay down next to her. She felt blood inching up her clothes, warming her in the worst way. All she could hear was quiet sobbing, someone who had lost everything and had nothing.  
Time passed.  
The door opened with a white light and guards stood there, looking down at her.  
The memory ended.  
Tayami came out of it crying. Jupiter had pulled the covers of her bed over herself and continued to weep.  
“Jupiter…”  
“Shut the hell up.”  
Tayami understood. The amount of pain soaking that memory was tremendous. She’d only felt it one other time, from a little girl who’d watched her mother die but refused to speak on it. It was depths of despair Tayami couldn’t begin to imagine.  
Wiping her face, she looked back to Jupiter.  
“What about the explosion..?”  
“Open the window.”  
Tayami’s gaze shifted to the medium sized window to her left.  
“Out… there?”  
“Yeah. What did I say?”  
“Apologies, but-”  
“Geez, you sound like Levi. “Apologies.” Just say sorry.”  
This allowed Tayami a moment of laughter where she found it difficult.  
Her steps were swift to the window, and despite the thunderous levels of snow, she popped it open.  
Everything went white.  
Tayami stood on a cobblestone street. She looked down at herself, clothes unkempt and sloppy. She felt… nothing. There was nothing but a soul-crushing emptiness in her host, the holder of the memory. Her footsteps carried her down the pathway. The front door from the previous memory was far down the street.  
She turned to her right, where a café stood. In front of it, strolling down the street, was the same man in the previous memory, clear as glass.  
And then came the overwhelming emotions.  
Never had she felt something like this before, something so afraid and so generally distressed. The emotion was unbearable and then…  
everything went black.  
Tayami opened her eyes, feeling like she’d been set on fire. She groaned, but was ruthlessly picked up by some guards and dragged off. A voice screamed something in a different language. The guards spoke back.  
The memory ends there, and Tayami is trembling in the center of Jupiter’s room. It must be over. That was everything for the case… that was all of it. All of it. Everything. She could go now, she wanted out-  
A horrific laugh resonated through the house.  
Jupiter, in her bed, covered her ears and screamed in frustration, saying something in Metyavskin, and pulling the covers tighter.  
“What was that?”  
“I HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE.”  
Rage was in her voice, the distress of not knowing.  
It was behind the door.  
Tayami took a step closer to it.  
She almost threw up.  
What… What in the Jewel Fish’s name?  
The energy was so disgusting, horrifying, and abhorrent. Tayami had never felt anything like it.  
Something was super, super wrong.  
Tayami’s hand touched the doorknob and suddenly the intense feeling of primal fear shot through her. She let go of the doorknob. Then put her hand back on it again.  
Her wrist twisted to open it.  
It wouldn’t budge.  
It was locked.  
She pulled on the doorknob.  
It wouldn’t budge.  
She yanked.  
Nothing.  
She kicked the door.  
Not even a little movement.  
“Jupiter..?”  
Tayami’s voice dripped with fear.  
“Wh… what’s behind there?”  
She sat up. For a second, Tayami swore she saw two Jupiters.  
“I don’t know.”  
“Can you help me open it?”  
A voice echoed from near Jupiter, louder than any other noise Tayami had heard.  
“NO.”  
It was her voice, but Jupiter had not opened her mouth. She blinked as though she had not heard it.  
Tayami knew that the door must come off its hinges.  
She slammed her full force into it.  
Nothing at all.  
Except faint cackling down the hall outside.

\-------------

LEVI’S POV

I watched as Tayami fell back, and caught her before her head could hit the floor.  
“Ms. Tayami?”  
I spoke gently to her. Her eye shut.  
“Something is hidden.”  
Was the only thing she said before sitting up.  
“There is… something major missing from her memory.”  
“She said she couldn’t remember her time in prison-”  
“I have never felt such negative energy.”  
Her words put me in my place. I looked past her at Jupiter, who was still fast asleep. Good… she needed it.  
Tayami began to shudder.  
“Hey, what happened-”  
“Do not worry, the negative energy is not her. She is not the negative energy. However…”  
Her fingers raised to her lips, and she bit down on her nails lightly.  
“Something in her refuses to let her remember.”  
I stood there, blinking blankly at her.  
“Is.. is this common?”  
“I have never seen memories this tightly closed off… nor this powerful.”  
She had begun to violently chew her nails, trembling gently and sitting down at the foot of Jupiter’s bed. I put my hand on her shoulder, hoping to console her at least a meager amount.  
So something was bad enough to have happened to Jupiter in prison that she forgot it entirely… But what?  
What could be that horrible?  
Prison was a cruel place, sure, but Tayami frequented the memories of criminals. Yet, she’d never seen something like this.  
I pondered on this before Nassau broke my thoughts.  
“What about her memories of the case?”  
“You did not tell me her story so I cannot verify if it was true-”  
“Just tell us. We didn’t want you influenced by anything you heard”  
Tayami began to explain everything she’d seen in the level of detail she had seen it. It linked almost exactly with Jupiter’s account of each event, and most notably…  
“She did not intentionally kill those people?”  
The fae shook her head gently.  
“No. There was no intention in that memory, only fear-”  
Suddenly, the door slammed open, nearly hitting Nassau who stood in the corner.  
“GUYS, IF JUPITER IS TELLING THE TRUTH-”  
Kandi barged in, screaming as usual. Her tail twitched behind her. She was holding a very old book. Gods above know where she got it.  
“We just established it’s very likely-”  
“Oh, really? I missed that. Since she’d shown up, I’d begun looking into her file and her race, more specifically. And I found….”  
She opened the book hurriedly to a specific page. It had an odd diagram on it and was written in old Commonspeak.  
“This. There’s an account of a sorcerer who, when exposed to incredible stress, exploded. Records were taken and their memory was reviewed multiple times. The only results in memory were the sorcerer “blacking out,” or falling unconscious as the explosion occurred. This was at least a thousand years ago, and-”  
“Where did you find that book?”  
“That isn’t important. A-anyway, if Jupiter is to be believed, we have evidence shown here that this has happened before in history. The only reason it doesn’t happen more frequently-”  
“-Is because sorcerers are uncommon and experiencing stress that significant is equally as uncommon... That makes sense.”  
“EXACTLY! And, you just said that Tayami verified Jupiter’s story, and now we have prior experience to work off of-”  
“Which means…”  
“She ain’t guilty of killing anyone. It was an accident.” Nassau spoke calmly, thinking on this.  
We all turned to look at Jupiter.  
The justice system in the District of the Feather had ruined this woman’s life. And we all thought the same thing.  
“I’m calling the Feather District-”  
“Wait.”  
Nassau caught my arm as I went to go grab my satchel.  
“She still supposedly killed thirty-eight criminals in prison. What about that?”  
I turned to look at him. I felt that odd twitch, the intuition I had.  
I don’t believe that.  
“I believe those were accidents too.”  
Kandi and Nassau glanced at each other.  
“What makes you think that?” Kandi spoke, tilting her head and twitching an ear.  
“They only said those people were killed in “prison fights.” No autopsy, no reports of manner of death other than “prison fight.” It is possible, considering the amount of stress she was under, enough to forget her stay in the Yuferev Prison, that… She exploded again. Another accident. Maybe even multiple times.”  
“Well, then we better look into it.”  
Nassau said, pushing himself off the wall.  
“Either way, I will be calling the Feather District Republic and reporting our findings.”  
I spoke up, pulling out the District phone and dialing the number for the Republic.  
“Hol’ on, Levi-”  
“What now?”  
“Slow down. They might not believe you. What if they show up with soldiers to take her away?”  
I paused, thinking about it. How far was I willing to go to protect Jupiter? She was innocent… those people still died, but they died in a tragic accident, not a murder. Jupiter wasn’t a murderer. She was a frightened teenager at the time. She couldn’t control what her body did. Should she be held accountable for nothing? Negligence was one thing, but this… this was similar to if someone was simply struck on the head by a falling rock and killed. An accident. It was just more than one person…  
“Why don’t we take this up with our superiors, huh?”  
I turned toward Nassau.  
“I suppose, but…”  
I felt discomfort rise in me.  
I was a fool around the families on the Fawn Advisory.  
“Let’s head on over there and make an appointment later. We’ll talk to whichever representative is available this week, mkay?”  
I nodded, sighing.  
Jupiter began to stir.

\--------

JUPITER’S POV

For the millionth time, I opened my eyes, surrounded by guards. Feh. Still?  
I sat up tiredly, rubbing my eyes. I had some weird fuckin’ dreams, that was for sure. Oh wait-  
There she was, the girl from my-  
Oh yeah. The memory consultant. So those were weird dreams but they were influenced. I blinked at her. She didn’t respond.  
“Jupiter. We have good news for you.”  
“You’re letting me go?”  
“No… but…”  
“Then what’s it matter?”  
“Jupiter, we’re keeping you safe.”  
“Okay. Whatever.”  
Leviathan growled, her hands balling into fists. Her fang stuck out over her bottom lip before she inhaled a long, deep breath and exhaled softly.  
“Tayami was able to fully verify your account of what happened… We have proof of innocence.”  
“Wh...what..? No…”  
“Ain’t ya happy?”  
The Commander looked at me oddly, sticking his lower lip out.  
“No! I deserve… I need to be punished for what I did, I’m not innocent, I killed those people, I killed in prison, I…”  
Leviathan suddenly crossed over and put both hands on my shoulders, leaning in close.  
“Jupiter. Listen to me.”  
“You did nothing wrong.”  
Her words were so earnest, so full of honesty and conviction. And her eye was right in front of mine. Looking into it, it was a vibrant red, the color most vampires shared amongst each other.  
It reminded me of…  
Blood.  
It was all around.  
On the floor. At my feet. On me.  
And then it was all gone.  
“Jupiter? Did you have another moment?”  
She had pulled away a little.  
“I… think so.”  
“What was it?”  
“Whaddyou care? Fuck off.”  
I pulled away from her and stuck my tongue out at her.  
Her face flattened.  
“This could help your case, Jupiter.”  
“Well, maybe I don’t want your help. Maybe I want to find myself dead in a ditch or in prison. Maybe-”  
“YOU DIDN’T DO ANYTHING, JUPITER-”  
Her voice shook the walls as she threw her hands up in the air. Kandi was thoroughly startled, and Tayami covered her ears.  
Levi sighed loudly, rubbing her face.  
“Apologies. But…”  
She turned to face me once again.  
“Jupiter… I need you to understand. It was an accident… what you’ve been told, it’s all false. You should have been given sympathy and protection, not been spit on or berated. Do you understand?”  
Suddenly I was crying… again.  
She… she really believed I wasn’t a bad person? She believed me?  
And then she smiled at me.  
“It’s okay. It’s okay now.”  
I looked down at my arm that I had cut open not so long ago.  
I began to sob. Was it really over? Could I… could I go home?  
“We’re going to talk to the Advisory. We’re going to get you cleared as quickly as possible… and begin our investigation into what happened in prison. You need your questions answered.”  
I wiped my eyes, looking at her.  
Fuck. She’s kinda pretty.  
I shook the thought from my head, and nodded at her.  
“Fine… I’ll… I dunno.”  
“Right now, Kandi is happy to let you stay with her. Right, Kandi?”  
“YEAH! YEAH!”  
“Besides, you need at least a week to recover, your ankle should be healing soon thanks to the healing ointment-”  
“About that…”  
I smiled sheepishly back at her.  
“I, um. Got upset and broke it again. My ankle, I mean.”  
She sighed real heavy and put her head in her hands. Her groan was frightening.  
“Oh my GOD Jupiter can you keep yourself harm-free for ONE DAY?!”  
I grinned at her.  
“No.”  
She looked up at me with rage and went to slap me again. I dodged.  
“HA!”  
“Levi… don’t hit her.”  
Nassau directed from behind. She calmed down pretty quick after that.


	6. meeting (chapter five)

LEVI’S POV

The appointment we set with one of the family representatives on the Fawn Advisory was scheduled for today. It had been a week since we had gone over Jupiter’s memories, and I had filled most of my time with speaking with her and trying to get to know her as well as reviewing her case thoroughly and trying to figure out who that missing Captain was. I learned some things about Jupiter. One, I already knew she was immature, but it seemed as though she had not quite aged after nineteen mentally. Of that she was unsure why, but she did disclose she doesn’t remember “maturing” as much as one might have had they not been locked away. Another was that her talent for fashion was extraordinary. I mentioned that I needed a coat for the winter as my current one was wearing down, and she was able to give me the color, size, and even stitch pattern of the best coat for me, complete with accents. She even offered to make it for free barring the fact she did not have the materials. While I did see her as unsophisticated in mental faculties, she seemed to be intelligent in areas that many were not. She knew places that people met for underground deals and who was who and where and why. Of course, most of this information I had to scoot out from beneath her stubborn “Why do you care’s” and “It’s not your business’s.” There were also things I learned without her saying.   
She was truly just a goofy person underneath her distressed exterior. She made silly jokes, puns, and liked to poke fun at people regularly for their shortcomings and laughed at one point when Kandi tripped on a rug. I don’t believe it was cruel, I think she was just a ‘silly’ person underneath the rest of her defenses. I also learned something that I had assumed may be the case but had not seen.   
She was very sweet.   
I overheard her conversation with Kandi at one point, while reviewing files, and Kandi was being down on herself about her appearance, a trait she had had since secondary school. Jupiter was able to compliment every little thing about her somehow, even areas most people may think were obscene. From somebody so specifically posh in her appearance, she was able to swiftly lift poor Kandi’s spirits and Kandi came out beaming and went straight back to work.  
Over the time she was healing from her injuries she had begun spending her time taking meticulous care of her appearance. She made do with some makeup Kandi had lying around but never used, and put her hair up into those perfectly messy horn-buns that she was so fond of. She asked me for her other clothes back, and I obliged, although they were nearly destroyed. The day after, I found her in a spick-and-span outfit, no sign of burns or ash. All tears repaired flawlessly.   
Kandi said she was rather helpful with experiments. She’d hold things still, monitor things when asked and was altogether polite in behavior but still rather rude in her speech and body language.   
I was rather fond of her now. I viewed her as somewhat of a friend, which may have been questionable considering she was the subject of an investigation, but…  
Either way, she was still rather down with herself and often would get into these fits where she knocked things over and screamed. I couldn’t imagine the pain of knowing you killed people, even if it was an accident.  
Nassau came to pick me up while I was over monitoring Jupiter and Kandi. They were off working on something, Jupiter being (mostly) careful about her ankle and arm. I could hear them chattering in the other room.  
He opened the front door slowly, waving to me and tossing me my coat that I had left next to the door.  
“Ya ready?”  
“Eh… I’ll do my best.”  
I stood up, putting it on and letting its weight fall on me. I followed him out the door, shouting that I was departing as I went.   
We began making our way through the varied stone snow-covered streets on our way to the Advisory Hall. It was a grand building, one of various precious metals intertwined with brick and stone. We took our time making our way up the steps. I checked my uniform for any dust or dirt, scraping any off with my hands.   
“Stop fussin’ so much, Levi.”  
“Apologies, Commander.”  
“Again with the formalities, Lieutenant.”  
I casted my gaze downward.   
The inside of the hall was immaculately clean, marble floors and pillars lining the walls. The hallway pointed straight back to the Advisory’s chambers, where they discussed official matters. The four families had portraits of their representatives hung high on the walls, painted in a dignified manner. I almost envied their power.  
We took the inner staircase up to the third floor, where the representative of the Penweather family had his office. It was hard not to worry about slipping on the smooth flooring.   
The door to the Penweather office was gigantic, but then again, all the doors to the offices of the Advisory were large and elegantly sculpted. We knocked four times as directed when our appointment was made. The door slowly opened to reveal a very tall Lukas Penweather, a flamboyant man and the son of the Penweathers. His mint green hair hung long to the side of his head, and the jacket of his uniform was not worn, only draped across his shoulders. His boots reached up to his thighs.  
“Hello, loves. Please, come in, come in, I’d love to chat.”  
His smile was infectious, and I felt the corners of my mouth arching up a little. Nassau was unfazed. We followed him into his office, one with a wall fountain and a sculpture of a stag. He had a sofa in front of the fountain that faced the side of his desk. He swiftly sat behind it and swiveled to us, crossing his legs with poise.   
“Good day, Mr. Penweather…”  
I spoke finally, my voice caught in my throat.  
“Please, just call me Lukas. You aren’t just anybody! You’re my commander and lieutenant!”  
He held his arms up in a grand gesture, grinning and nodding his head.  
“What may I do for you two today? You mentioned something on the phone about a case. I’m dying to know.”  
Lukas leaned forward, his head in his hand and his elbow on his knee. His smug expression was one of a Penweather. It fell through the family.  
“Levi? You wanna take this? It’s yer case now.”  
I swallowed hard, fidgeting with my hands in my lap.  
“Yes, um… We have information on Jovana Malcovic.”  
The grin on his face quickly faded.  
“Do...do tell.”  
I nodded again.  
“We found her.”  
Lukas’s eyes grew larger than I’d ever seen in the years I’d known him.  
“You… You WHAT?! YOU MADE AN APPOINTMENT? WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST BAGRE IN AND TELL ME-”  
I shushed him, waving my hands downwards.   
“It isn’t what you think… she isn’t what you think.”  
His expression dimmed once again, and he folded his hands in his lap, confused.  
“After thoroughly reviewing Jup- Jovana’s case files, we found much to be censored and omitted, as well as it being littered with holes.”  
Lukas nodded slowly.  
“I found her in the Allegiance’s church fire a little over a week ago. I kept her hidden because I knew something was wrong. Every guard knew it too. She always acted like a scared teenager, not a murderous fiend. And after reviewing her file…”  
I glanced down at my hands. Nassau put a hand on my shoulder as a kind of confidence booster. I looked back up.  
“We found she was never psychically reviewed. Her memories were never checked. Her versions of the story were never recorded-”  
“-and why should we trust her? She killed at least fifty-two people-”  
“-but that's the thing. She didn’t. It was falsified. It was all an accident, and she had no involvement in the killing of Vivian Westerfield.”  
“Wh..what?!”  
“We brought in a psychic, a memory consultant, who reviewed her memories, knowing next to nothing about the case other than that Jovana was simply involved somehow. She came out and repeated, verbatim, what Jovana had told us was the truth.”  
Lukas covered his mouth with a hand.  
“So the Feather Republic was wrong for convicting her? You’re sure these memories are real?”  
“There’s no way they were faked. We checked it with the psychic multiple times. She’s seen fake memories, and if these were somehow faked, she’s got the ability to fake memories better than should be possible.”  
“What about the evidence?!”  
“The evidence… may not be real. Based on her memory of the event, which, by the way, was an incredibly clear memory, there was no evidence even among her. She was not holding it...besides, that evidence could be explained away. A kitchen knife with unknown traces of blood with her fingerprints could quite literally just be because she cut herself on that knife and happened to hold it… it was in her house for god's sake! Of course she used it-”  
Lukas nodded.  
“I see.”  
He sat up very straight.   
“Can I meet her? I want to speak with her herself. I need to know if she really is as you say.”  
I nodded.   
“We will take you to her. I assure you, she is… well, she can be rude. But she is no killer.”  
\---------

JUPITER’S POV

After more than enough helping Kandi out with her bizarre experiments and mixings of things, as well as even testing a few that she assured me would not corrupt me, I found myself sitting on a chair in her kitchen-turned-lab and resting my ankle. I was glad to be back in my usual clothing, able to keep my appearances up. The only downside was I could no longer hide the tightly wrapped bandages up my arm. It was… embarrassing. Shameful. But so was I, and this was little different. I tapped my platform boots on the floorboard, happy to be as tall as Kandi now. I missed them. They made me feel safe, I wore them so frequently.   
Kandi passed me a vial of a greenish liquid, made mostly of magical herbs and spices, almost like a sickening tea. I gulped it quickly, and she offered me water to wash it down. A plant sprung out of my hand.   
“Haha, weird.”  
“Hm… so it encourages plant growth when mixed in that order, but discorages it when mixed in another… Very interesting!”  
She began scrawling on the wall in chalk again, and I poked at the little sprout. I tried pulling it out but it kinda hurt.   
Our escapades were interrupted by the front door swinging open followed by Levi’s voice and an unfamiliar one.  
“JUPITER- Could you come out? Somebody important wants to meet you-”  
“No, no love, I’m not that important… but if you insist.”  
I cautiously turned my head round the corner to see a foppish man standing rather tall in commanding attire and thigh high boots.   
Finally, someone with some kind of fuckin’ fashion sense.   
“Heya, um, I love your boots, what brand are they? They look to be Carolistin, but I could be wrong. Is that coat a uniform? It’s spectacularly designed, and the copper accents really help the piece pop, I’m a big fan of the buttoning on the top-”  
“Jupiter.”  
“Huh?”  
“This is Fawn Advisory Member Lukas Penweather.”  
A shudder ran up my back.  
“Oh… You’re a… government person.”  
I grinned awkwardly at him.  
“Uhh… Hi?”  
He started laughing, holding his belly as an uproar began. As he calmed down, he wiped an eye and turned to Levi.  
“No, no, this can’t be Jovana Malcović. She’s too…”  
“Immature?”  
“Maybe-”  
“What the fuck’s that ‘sposd to mean?!”  
I put my hands on my hips and leaned forward. I turned toward Levi.  
“Why is this guy here? Did you lie to me? Are you taking me in..?”  
Fear began swelling in my chest. My hand started flickering to life as a defense.  
“No, Lukas, This is the real Malcović… and she goes by Jupiter now.”   
Leviathan turned back to me, smiling a little, almost nervously.  
“No. We’re letting him know about what we found about your case. He wanted to meet you and see for yourself that you aren’t…”  
“...a psychopath?”  
My face fell. I began to scratch at my arm, bandages slowly becoming undone.   
Lukas caught this and his face turned concerned. He leaned down a little to meet my height.  
“Jo- Jupiter. What happened to your arm?”  
His eyes were warm and he seemed genuinely concerned for my well-being.   
“Well, she-”  
“I tried to kill myself.”  
This seemed to catch him off guard very quickly, and he almost stumbled back.   
“Wh...why?”  
“I… I’m horrible. I hurt all those people. Levi wouldn’t punish me. Someone had to.”  
His gaze shifted from shock to an incredible sadness. He slowly turned to face Levi.  
“I want to speak with her longer, but… I’ve seen enough. Her guilt is immeasurable… her profile said she was a cunning killer who thought incredibly highly of herself, a terrorist… she wouldn’t even begin to fake this.”  
His body turned back to face me, and he gestured for me to sit. I obliged, nearly buckling due to the shitty ankle of mine.  
“Are you alright, love?”  
His words startled me. I don’t quite remember what happened, but I heard a foreign voice floating in my head.  
“Jupiter?”  
Levi looked at me with a soft gaze, snapping her fingers in front of my face.  
“Oh. Sorry. What was… happening?”  
Mr. Penweather looked horribly afraid for me.  
“What’s… wrong with her? Why did her face get like that?”  
“We… don’t know yet. It seems some things set her off like that and she disappears for a few minutes.”  
“Wait, that was only a second-”  
“We tried to get your attention for a full minute, Jupiter.”  
I blinked emptily back at the two of them.  
“Oh. Um. Okay then.”  
“So, I want to hear from her. What happened on those days?”  
“Careful, Penweather-”  
Nassau spoke up from behind.   
“It’s okay. It’s not like I can stop thinking about it now anyway.”  
I sucked in a deep breath, filling my chest with air and reviewing the memories I wanted to forget so badly.  
“When my girlf- Vivian died, all that happened was I got home, saw a man running out the back door, and then I saw her dead on the floor.”  
“What about how you were-”  
“Lukas.”  
Nassau glared at him.   
Lukas bit the inside of his cheek.  
“Nassau, it’s… fine. Um, I thought if I laid down and pretended the warmth of her blood was just her cuddling me that she’d come back.”  
Everyone sat in silence for a few moments. Well, that was a vulnerable ass thing to say.  
“So you saw her killer? Could you identify him.”  
“Yeah… in fact, he’s the reason I…”  
I made an explosion motion with my hands with a bwoosh from my mouth.   
“I saw him again, on the street. I just… blacked out. When I woke up, guards were just yanking me away from this sea of bodies convulsing and I couldn’t understand why…”  
Lukas nodded assuredly.  
“We never heard this story. How can we verify that this explosion thing is-”  
Kandi suddenly skidded in, sliding on the floorboards in her socks and handed him the book, adjusting the glasses on her face.   
“Here. Read this page.”  
After taking a moment to review the old workings, he looked up at me.  
“You’re… you’re innocent. We can’t punish you for something you had no control over… and it must be punishment enough to live knowing…”  
He put his head in his hand and brushed his hair out of his face.   
“But what about the killings in prison? What happened there..?”  
He looked exasperated, frustrated, and just generally upset.   
“I’m sorry, Mr. Lukas. I don’t remember.”  
“You… don’t remember?”  
“My memory fades after a certain point.”  
“That would be..?”  
“Well, after they interrogated me for kaboom, they went to run something by their boss, and all I can remember is a smile… and then I remember being outside prison, in the snow, in my jumpsuit, and moving without trying.”  
Levi’s eyes widened.  
“So… this implies something about the Captain was..? Off?”  
“I don’t remember any Captain.”  
She turned, the hair covering her eye flicking out of the way and revealing her eye briefly.   
“We tried looking into the Captain, but…”  
A hand went behind her neck.  
“There was no file. It’d been removed.”  
Lukas stood up abruptly.  
“Excuse me?”  
His expression remained incredulous, unchanging, waiting for an answer. This information was new to me. When no answer was revealed to him, he continued.  
“That would mean someone high up wanted it gone. Who in the hell would go to the trouble of removing a captain, unless they did something heinous and needed to be protected-”  
“We’re looking into it now. We can’t find any information on this guy, and…”  
Nassau piped up.  
“Actually, I looked into who ran Yuferev Prison during Jupiter’s stay. That file was removed too.”  
All three of them looked amongst each other.  
“We cannot alert the Feather District that we’re looking for this file.”  
“Well, one person would know who ran that prison. And the captain.”  
Every one of them slowly turned their head to look at me.  
As they did, another image flashed through my head.  
It was an entire face. But just like that, it was gone and forgotten again.  
“Jupiter? Did you remember something?” Levi leaned in close to me.  
“I… did but then I forgot again.”  
Lukas was silent for a while, staring at me. When he finally parted his lips, his expression shifted into that of uncertainty.  
“I’ve seen...this before. This kind of behavior. When my sister… Before she passed, she had a similar expression sometimes. She would wave it off and tell me not to worry. But alas...it was right for me to have.”  
“Sorry, who are we talking about?” I chimed in, tilting my head,   
“Lucia Penweather. His twin sister, who passed two years ago. She committed suicide. Nobody knows why. Except the Penweather’s.”  
Nassau crossed his arms and glanced over at Lukas.  
“And I promised her the night she died that I’d never speak of what happened to her again. We’re changing the subject now, dears.”  
Lukas moved his head to his hands as he spoke, tone grave, covering his face, before rearing it back up and looking me directly in the eye.  
“Jupiter, love. What happened to you?”  
“Nothing! Nothing at all! Everything is-”  
Everyone began to look at me. Why the fuck was I being so defensive? I didn’t even know myself…  
“Jupiter… did something happen?”  
“NO! Nothing happened. It’s not a big deal, I can’t remember anyway-”  
Silence covered the room like a thick layer of ice. Everyone was looking at me. I couldn’t make eye contact with anyone. Something in me began to crawl out from the inside, a feeling that stung. I couldn’t identify any of it.   
Everyone just kept watching.  
“STOP. STOP LOOKING AT ME.”  
I screamed without intention. I realized I had moved from scratching my arm to pulling my hair. I looked down at my fist, opening it to reveal a small clump of hair. The feeling inside me boiled faster.  
“Jupiter, can you remember anything-”  
Leviathan was earnest but insistent, placing a gentle hand on my knee. Everything began to feel fuzzy.  
“I’ve had enough,” Lukas said, sucking in a deep breath. “As the Military Advisor of the District of the Horn, I am pardoning Jovana Malcović from prosecution until this investigation is fulfilled. However, I must request you keep her under watch to keep her safe…”  
His vibrant green eyes held their position on me, soft and full of emotion.   
It was… over.  
\---------

LEVI’S POV

Watching Jupiter in this conversation had been an experience. Her temporary moments of departing from the present began picking up, and she had begun to absentmindedly tug her hair. I was becoming greatly concerned, and Advisor Lukas was as well. Jupiter sat in front of us, jaw slacked in awe at what she’d just heard. Her lip quivered.  
I couldn’t imagine the catharsis one must feel after being tortured for years and finally hearing it end. The Feather Republic had ruined this woman’s life. I intended to put it back together.  
But her memory lapses concerned myself and the rest of us greatly. Jovana Malcović had been relieved of her crimes, crimes she did not commit. She wasn’t out of the woods fully, until we discovered what happened in prison, what caused the slaughter of thirty-eight people. And I would work tirelessly on this. It would be difficult, but our only option was to break the memories out of her head. If we did not, the Feather Republic would come for Jupiter and it would be over. The moment they hear of the pardoning, guards would be on our doorstep and asking for her to be handed over. I would protect her. It was my duty.   
I turned to her, looking at her as she sat in silence, eyes widened.  
“Jupiter? Would you like to go for a walk?”  
“I…”  
“Let’s go to the market and look around.”  
“I…”  
I waited with bated breath for her response.  
“I’m… free?”  
“Once we discover what happened in prison you will truly be free, but you are allowed to go out as long as you are escorted. And I will be your escort.”  
The poor girl couldn’t believe it, her hands just ghosting in front of her mouth.   
“Let us celebrate, Jupiter. Come with me. Just… be careful of your ankle.”  
She nodded slowly, swallowing hard and standing to face me.   
“I’d really like to. I won’t have to hide?”  
“No. You won’t.”  
I smiled at her. It was hard to smile for me. It didn’t come naturally, like trying to pull apart metal bars, but I tried for her sake. She smiled back, her teeth linking together like puzzle pieces. They were so abnormally sharp. I didn’t care.  
Something in me told me to kiss her.  
I banished the thought immediately.   
“Shall we get going? There's a lovely little clothing shop I think you might like to see.”  
I gestured for her to follow me, before stopping as I realized she did not quite have a coat or anything to keep warm. I pulled the Horn District hoodie out of my bag and passed it to her, and she put it on, still wearing shorts.  
“Jupiter, are you sure you’ll be alright in the snow?”  
“Oh, me? I’m fine. I used to live in worse weather.”  
“May I accompany you two? I need a walk.”   
Lukas interjected, smiling.   
So we set out. We moved on down the streets with care. Jupiter got plenty of stares, a couple comments, but she didn’t seem to notice, for that I was grateful. Lukas kept a steady pace, and usually once they saw that the Military Advisor was walking with us, they stopped paying much attention, figuring it was all handled.   
We arrived at the boutique late in the day. The sky was clear, and I held the door open for both Advisor Lukas and Jupiter to enter. The true reason I brought Jupiter here was so we could try and get some fabric out from the owner. She was simply alone at home with her thoughts, and I thought it best if she had something to fill her time with.  
The building was rather clean, and mannequins stood in arrangements. Jupiter seemed enthralled immediately, rushing to each of the different stands and feeling all the fabric and admiring the work the owner made.   
“May I help yo- Oh, Advisor Penweather… Welcome.”  
“Good day, love. Erm, quick question, where do you think we may find fabrics on sale?”  
“I have some in the back I can sell to you. Give me one minute.”  
The clerk went to the back of the store quickly. It seemed Lukas and I had had a similar idea about how to help Jupiter’s mental state. She said nothing, only mumbling to herself, combing through all the intricately made outfits that were frankly too frilly for my tastes. I liked more refined clothing, but I don’t think Jupiter was partial to any one type. The clerk emerged from the back of the store, holding rolls of fabric.   
“What’s it all for?”  
“Ah, this young lady right here, she-”  
“Hold on… isn’t that the…”  
“Don’t say anything. Don’t say a word. Just sell us the fabric and we’ll be leaving. I can assure you she is a delightful woman.”  
Lukas interrupted, leaning on the front counter. He made that smug little expression again. He threw a fair amount of coins onto the counter. That shut her up quickly.   
Our trip was short, and we departed quickly, heading back to Kandi’s house which seemed to be Jupiter’s place of residence for the time being.   
On our way back, Jupiter asked me a question.  
“Levi?”  
“Yes?”  
“Why don’t you just let me go to prison? I did kill all those people… I’m…”  
“It isn’t who you are. I know that.”  
The rest of our trip was spent in silence. We dropped her off at home, and then Lukas and I went our separate ways.   
I would now work towards uncovering the rest of the mysteries surrounding my new friend. I would not rest until I knew.

It was what she deserved.   
\------------------

??????

A man sat alone next to the pool, shirtless and drinking a beverage far too fancy for a commoner. His swim shorts kept him cool in the beating sun. His hair hung in his face. A dragon slept in the pool. His legs crossed one over the other, a knot of comfort.  
His flip phone rang.


	7. pain (chapter six)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW// Suicide, self-harm

LEVI’S POV

It had been about a month since Jupiter’s pardoning, yet she did not often leave Kandi’s home. I supposed it must have been nice to not have to run away for once, to have a place you could stay safely.   
However, her mental condition seemed to worsen. One day, I walked in on Jupiter walking in circles and tugging her hair out, grunting in frustration. All she was able to tell me when she calmed down was that “she couldn’t remember.” Another time I had to take a sharp object from her. She had just been staring at herself in the mirror with it. Despite this, though, we made time to go out for food, chat, and overall try to create positive experiences. She did end up making me that coat, and it was the best quality coat I’d received in my life.  
I cared for her deeply now. I had not expected to become so attached to someone so quickly, especially considering the times we shared where she was more obnoxious than any other person had ever been. I worried for her and made sure to check in, even on busy days, and stayed up more than a few times trying to find connections between guard files and the MIA Captain.   
A few times, I brought her to meet the other guards and watch me train, and she seemed to enjoy watching that thoroughly. I wondered if she missed the cat-and-mouse game she used to play with us. On this particular day, she was with me at the guard station, and even tried participating in the training since her injuries healed. She offered to spar with me, and while I was wary, I obliged, and we fought.  
She was shockingly talented.   
Every swipe of my mock sword was met with an equally quick dodge and a punch back that send me back. Her brute strength wasn’t near matching mine, however, she was excellent at wearing me down simply by avoiding and evading every attack. Other guards watched with intense eyes. Nim cheered me on from the sides.   
Round two.   
Jupiter stood across from me, prop in hand. Her gaze was steady on me, electricity dancing around her hands and feet. When the referring guard blew the whistle, she lunged at me with incredible speed, propelled by a blast at her feet. A sword came down on me, but I slid to the side, allowing it to scrape my uniform. My fist flew forward, and she caught it before it reached her gut. I used this opportunity to flip her onto her back, and she made contact with the ground with a loud thud, and a pained groan erupting from her throat. I went to check on her, and she grabbed my ankle with an electrified grasp and shocked my entire body, causing me to collapse too. I’d winded her though, but she had I, and we both lay down on the ground. I heard her start laughing. It was infectious. I began to chortle as well.  
When the electricity stopped running through me, enough to finally sit up, I immediately went to check on her, making sure I hadn’t hurt her too badly. She held her gut but assured me she was fine, backing up every time I got close.  
Dr. Adrians watched from nearby, and came over to inspect her as well. While Cardinal was off on the sidelines with her, Nim approached me for a high five, which I, after some deliberation, obliged.   
“Levi! You did great-”  
“Bah. I could have done much better.”  
The two of us moved to sit next to each other. Sweat dribbled off my forehead. I moved to wipe it.  
“C’mon, Lev. You’re always great.”  
“She’s rather good herself.”  
Nimuel glanced between me and Jupiter who was currently being examined closely by Dr. Adrians.   
“You like her, don’t you?”  
“How do you mean? She’s my friend. I am rather fond of her.”  
“No, I mean, you think she’s cute.”  
“What is it with you and Dr. Adrians assuming I have a thing for her?”  
“I saw the way you looked at her. I know you like me, but you don’t come over to me with that level of concern when I take a nasty fall.”   
“She’s just smaller than me, that’s all.”  
“So am I, Levi.”  
He was right. I didn’t do that with anyone else. But I couldn’t possibly be interested in her romantically, that was ludicrous. She was a serial… no. She wasn’t. She was a lovely woman. I realized my preconceived notions of her were still in the way, despite all the time I’d spent with her. I looked towards Nim.  
“How do you know?”  
“Huh?”  
“How do you know that she isn’t dangerous?”  
“Well, because you don’t think so. And I’ve met her, she’s afraid of even being touched. She’s not like the other people we put away.”  
I paused. I couldn’t believe I had second guessed my judgement. Of course she was harmless. If she wasn’t, I would be dead by now and she’d be missing. But no, instead, she seemed to enjoy my company and spend time with me. I couldn’t see this as me being gamed.   
Lukas Penweather seemed to agree with Nassau and I as well. He often dropped by in the afternoons to say hello to us, but truly I believed he was interested in Jupiter. I believed she reminded him of his late twin. Lucia was always like that. Immature, as long as I knew her.  
But I also couldn’t believe in the possibility of having feelings for her.  
Jupiter walked over to us, waving.   
“Heeyyyyyy, I’m all good! Maybe broke a rib, but-”  
“Jupiter, I broke one of your ribs!?”  
“Eh, it’s fine. I’ll live.”  
“No, you need to get some rest, Dr. Adrians-”  
“-said it was okay. Let’s go again.”  
“Jupiter?”  
I looked up at her. She was sweaty too.  
“Yeah?”  
“Is this fun for you?”  
“Huh?”  
“I mean… was running from us a game for you? You almost do this like you’re playing, not fighting.”  
Jupiter smiled.   
“Yeah, kinda. It was really the only way I could get myself to defend… was to make it a game for myself. I guess I haven’t let that go.”  
I noticed a new bracelet on her wrist.  
“Where’d you get that?”  
It looked...expensive. I’d never seen it before.  
“Oh.. um… I may have… I dunno.”  
“Did you steal it?”  
“Maybe.”  
“Jupiter!”  
“It’s a habit, okay?! I’m trying to stop but…”  
I sighed and tried to smile at her to let her know I wasn’t mad. If anyone came by looking for a bracelet, I’d make her give it back, but otherwise it couldn’t be helped.   
She was such a special person.  
Our conversation was quickly interrupted by Commander Nassau coming out of his quarters.  
“Everyone, get yer armor. The Allegiance decided to burn down a pretty popular restaurant and apparently they’re out attacking innocents.”  
All the guards began to move quickly, hurrying back to their dorms in order to get situated. Jupiter looked confused.  
“The...what did what? Huh?”  
She stood there, turning to and fro, watching people scramble to get suited up.   
“Jupiter, stay here. Cardinal will watch you.”  
\-----------

JUPITER’S POV

Watching guards scatter to make preparations was like watching ants in a frenzy after stepping on a pile. I hadn’t the slightest idea who the Allegiance was, or why I was forced to stay here. And within minutes, everybody had left, leaving me alone with Dr. Adrians.   
“Who…?”  
“The Allegiance of the Midsummer’s Night. A cult formed around reuniting the Districts as one. However, their methods over time have developed into terrorism, believing they’ll one day be able to corner the governments into working with them. They’re a nuisance, and impossible to sniff out. They frequently use teleportation bands, a technology we are yet to understand. Kandi has been studying them.”  
I nodded along.   
“I want to go help-”  
“The lieutenant said no.”  
“But-”  
“No buts.”  
I shoved down my anger and began hatching an escape plan. It was easy to get out of the guard station. The front door was always unlocked from the inside.   
“Hey, Dr. Adrians? My chest is hurting, could you go get something for me?”  
“Hm? Alright. Fine. But you stay right there-”  
The moment her back was turned, I booked it, even on three-inch platforms. I made it out the front door quickly and slammed it shut behind me. I had no clue where they’d gone, but it didn’t take long to figure out. I simply followed the billowing tower of smog rising in the air.   
The way there wasn’t easy, and crowds of people were trying to escape the spreading fire. When I arrived, the scene was a mess. I saw people in large cloaks with veils covering their faces fanning the flames, and some pinning people to walls with strange weapons, U-shaped spears that held them down under the threat of a nasty cut. Many were grappling with guards while one man stood on a crate and barked orders in code to all the cult members. It was a gigantic clusterfuck of an organization. Some guards ran to try and put out the spreading fire, and one ran into the flames to try and rescue any survivors stuck inside. As I arrived, I was quickly greeted with a fist in the gut by an anonymous cult member, before they grabbed the back of my forehead and slammed it into theirs. The dizziness was unbearable, but I made sure to reset as quickly as possible. My fist crackled to life, and with popping sounds trailing through the air, I socked the lackie in the veil with an electrified blast. They went down hard. I moved to see a guard being pinned to the ground, a gun pointed to the back of their stag helmet. I rushed over, throwing my weight into the assailant, and tossing them to the ground. Gravel flew up in our faces, some catching in my teeth, and the cult member shoved me off themselves and I steadied myself. They charged at me, fire lighting in their hands before it made contact with the side of my face. Great Owl in the sky it fucking burned, feeling my flesh stick to their hand. I squealed unintentionally, before reaching my knee up swiftly to their crotch, sinking into the muscle. They grunted, but pulled their gun on me and aimed it straight for my face. My hand moved on its own to snatch it from them, the magnetism switching to direct to me. I took it, aiming it back at them. I unloaded all the bullets as they watched and then promptly pocketed the weapon. I shoved them to the ground, making sure they stayed down before moving to the members fanning the growing blaze. I pulled the three of them down with me, all three landing on top of me. I sent out a jolt of electricity, temporarily paralyzing all three and then crawled out from underneath them. I moved to attempt to put out the flames, taking a nearby trough of water for plants and pouring it over it. It helped temporarily.   
I felt someone grab the back of my neck and start dragging me. I tried shocking them, but their grip did not waver, and they suddenly tossed me like a ragdoll to face them.  
Behind the veil, it was the man who had been barking orders to all the other cult members. His long blonde braid swayed behind him in the growing winds from the inferno, and his black eyes sunk into me.   
“Well, look who I’ve found!”  
I kicked at him, pulling at his grip, but it only seemed to tighten around my throat. He made me make eye contact.  
“Jovana Malcović… Don’t you remember us?”  
“I haven’t…. The slightest clue....”  
I gasped, air leaving my lungs.  
“Why are you on the guards side now? I thought you were against them, like us… What happened to thievery and murder?”  
My eyes involuntarily began to water.  
“I don’t… hurt people anymore. No more stealing...no more…”  
His hand squeezed around my throat harder.  
“Don’t you remember stealing an artifact for us? That band?”  
It took a minute, I’d stolen so many things over the last three years it was hard to remember what was what. But soon, I remembered meeting with a cloaked figure to steal some weird metal band for them, and…  
“You were paid handsomely, were you not?”  
He tilted my head to align with his.  
“And you say you do not hurt people… but look around! You’ve nearly killed five of my people! I would say that isn’t very kind.”  
He laughed, squeezing and forcing the rest of the air out of me, holding for a moment, then dropping me.  
“I suppose you are better suited for hurting people.”  
I had fallen in a messy heap, vision growing fuzzy and blurry as I had lost air.   
He was right.   
I don’t care who he was.   
It was true.  
I stood to my feet, not looking at him, and went to grab something off of a fallen cult member.  
I hadn’t even gone a goddamn month without hurting somebody. I would end it here. I would end it now.   
I wouldn’t hurt anyone ever again.

\-----------------

LEVI’S POV

In the midst of all the fighting, I briefly caught a glimpse of yellow out of the corner of my eye. I thought that she surely would not have come here and put herself in danger.   
At another point, I saw the cult’s second in command choking her.  
I had no time to reprimand her before I was attacked one again, and the fight resumed. I took slashes with my scimitar through their cloaks and veils, careful not to end the lives of any… however, if it was to occur, most understood. It was what was expected of us, to defend the people. These fiends were the true dangers to society.  
And suddenly, with a word from their leader, all of them poofed out of existence. Teleporting away to where they would not be found, the guards were left to the task of putting out the embers and flames. They were going out anyway, and unfortunately this restaurant was destroyed and innocents were harassed and injured. But for some reason, I could only think of where Jupiter went. I looked through the crowd frantically, looking for her, but spotted nothing. Footprints in the ash led away, but those could have been anybody's. To be honest, I was rather afraid they’d taken her with them… seeing her as some sort of traitor to them, even though she was never a part of the cult. I suppose that didn’t matter, because an enemy of the government is their friend. I leaned over to the Commander, who was nearby.  
“Did you see Jupiter in the scuffle?”  
“What? Nah, I ain’t. I thought she was back with Cardinal-”  
“I thought the same. However, I saw her being…”  
I hesitated.   
“Being choked by the Right Hand of the cult.”   
“Great stag… alrighty, where is she now?”  
“That’s the problem… I don’t know.”  
“Well, I pray that they didn’t take her. Why don’t you search the area an-”  
We were interrupted by a sharp scream, and I took action, rushing over to see what was up.  
Well, I’d found Jupiter.   
Blood was seeping through her clothes from a very deep stab wound in her stomach… at first I gathered she had sustained the wound in battle, but then I saw the bloody knife in her other hand…  
Blood began trickling out of her mouth and the poor woman who found her was horrified.   
I didn’t realize I had rushed over to her until I was speaking to her.  
“Jupiter, hey, it’s okay. Can you hear me? What happened?!”  
I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible. I knew what happened, she’d tried it again. But why?  
Jupiter hacked up some blood. It ran down her chin.  
“I don’t… wanna hurt anyone anymore. It’s all I do…”  
I brushed some hair out of her face carefully, looking into her half-open eyes.  
“The people you hurt tonight… it was for the greater good.”  
“But I still…”  
I didn’t let her finish before I scooped her up and began hurrying past Nassau to get her back to our station.   
Please don’t die. Please don’t die.  
Nassau must have seen, because he told me he’d take it from here. Other guards looked on, wondering what the hell happened.  
I just wanted to keep her alive.  
My steps were hard and fast on the gravel, the cold air rushing past me. Jupiter kept coughing up drops of blood, looking more and more pale.   
It wasn’t long before I arrived back at the guard station, and Cardinal immediately knew something was wrong.   
“Shit, shit, I’m sorry, she tricked me into-”  
“It’s fine, Cardinal. It isn’t your fault.”  
We rushed inside the hospital segment of the guard station, where Dr. Adrians spent most of her time. The room had brown walls and smooth flooring, with an overall beige and white color palette, with black and red accents here and there.   
I set Jupiter down on a bed far away from the door. I knew she didn’t like disturbance in her sleep, it was something I learned about her after waking her up early by accident. I got an earful for that.   
She was bleeding pretty heavily, and it began to soak the sheets she was laying on. She was barely awake, eyes fluttering open and closed periodically. Cardinal went to work, barking at me to apply pressure on the wound while she gathered her things. I did exactly as she said and then some, trying to wipe the blood off of Jupiter’s face as she lay motionless.   
“Shit. Shit. This is a nasty wound, hard to give yourself, this girl has some kind of determination-”  
I wasn’t entirely happy with her words, but I kept up with her.  
“I’m going to have to do a minor form of surgery. She’s got internal bleeding. I’m going to need you to leave so I can focus.”  
“Are you sure I can’t help?”  
“Do you really want to see her guts?”  
“Erm…”  
I stepped back, watching her get to work and slowly exiting the room. I shut the door quietly.   
I didn’t realize till now that I’d been crying, tears running down my cheeks, my eyeliner going with it.  
Why the hell was I this damn emotional over her?  
Why did I care so much?  
My head swam as I reviewed all the feelings I’d had for her in the last month, that time I’d felt like kissing her, the times I wanted to be close to her…  
Did I love her?  
It was a possibility…  
Unfortunately.  
How could I love such a…   
No. She was sweet, and I knew that. Myths still filled my head.  
I gripped my head in my hands and kept myself from screaming.  
I couldn’t imagine what things were like, how hard they may be for her, but gods be damned if they weren’t hard for me at this moment.   
I cared about her so much.  
I didn’t even mean for it to happen.  
I had just wanted to help her.  
My thoughts redirected back to what she had told me behind the burnt building.  
I don’t wanna hurt anyone anymore.  
What did that son of a bitch right hand tell her? He must have convinced her she was a monster, just like everyone else, and it didn’t take much. Jupiter…  
I wished I could tell her that it would be okay. That she was still worthy of life even including her past. I wish I could have convinced her of everything I thought of her, how I thought she was so good with clothing and a heart that yearned to keep people safe and happy, even aside from her goofiness…   
I must have loved her in some way.  
All I could think of is how deeply I cared for her.   
Hours passed.  
I was still sitting outside the hospital, head in my arms, knees folded up.  
Nassau came by to sit with me.  
“Hey.”  
I didn’t feel like responding.  
“Heh, you used to sit like this when you was fifteen. Outside the station. The day I found ya, ya were sittin’ like that.”   
He stretched his legs out, looking out at all the guards who’d come back and gotten out of their armor, heading to dinner in the dining hall.   
“Jupiter’ll be okay. I’m sure.”  
“What makes you say that?”  
“Girl is resilient… there's a reason she keeps livin’ in spite of everything and all her efforts. You said you saw her fightin’ today?”  
He turned to me, raising a brow.  
“Yeah. She saved one of the younger soldiers from being shot.”  
“No kiddin’! Why’d.. why’d she try to end it this time? She did somethin’ great.”  
“I think the Right Hand convinced her that all she did was hurt people… but I’m not sure.”  
We sat in silence together, the courtyard of the guard station quiet aside from the nighttime's crickets coming to life. The last hues of blue sat on the horizon, dark violet spreading above.  
The door to my left clicked open slowly.  
“We sittin’ out here?”  
Cardinal smiled, sitting down next to us. She had changed clothes, presumably because her last load was covered in blood.  
“H...how’d it-”  
“It went fine. Though that stab wound was real harsh, I thought it could be curtains. That’s the second time I’ve saved her life. She’ll thank me one day.”  
I kept my gaze fixed on her. She brushed some hair out of her face.  
“She’ll be kept on bedrest, but due to the amount of healing concoctions that Kandi supplies us with… Give her about a week.”  
“I should have seen this coming.”  
“Huh?”  
“It is my fault. I should have known this would happen one way or another. Over the past month, her mental health has been slowly deteriorating. I caught her tugging her hair out a few times, or staring at herself in the mirror, or mumbling and spacing out more frequently. She seemed… so tired.”  
“It isn’t your fault, Leviathan.”  
Cardinal put a hand on my shoulder, smiling softly at me.   
“She’s had a rough life. Everyone handles it differently.”  
“If I was in her shoes, I’da be a dead man.”  
Nassau nodded assuredly, arms still crossed.   
“I can’t imagine being seventeen… and sent to prison when you did nothing wrong.”  
Quiet settled upon us once again, and no one knew quite what to say, until Cardinal Andrians stood up, patting my shoulder.  
“Wanna go say hi to her?”  
“I don’t want to interrupt her sleep…”  
“Eh, go see her anyway.”  
I made my way to the hospital door and opened it slowly. Jupiter’s form was at the other end of the room, and I went to her.  
She was fast asleep. Some stray blood had dried on her chin and I gently removed it.  
I sat down in the chair next to her bed.  
The night went all the way through. I stayed up as long as I could, reading, but eventually sleep took me.  
Early the next morning, I awoke to her screaming.  
I found her outside of her bed, hands buried in her hair and tugging at it. She was trembling, drenched in sweat.   
“Jupiter, holy Stag, are you okay?!”  
I approached her slowly, sleep still residing in my eyes. She didn’t seem to hear me.   
“Jupiter-”  
Cardinal and Command Nassau rushed in as well. Jupiter’s poor eyes were bugging out of her head and she was panting like a dog.   
“Please- don’t let him- no, I-”  
Jupiter breathed, clutching her chest as water swelled in her eyes.  
“Jupiter… who are you talking about?”  
“I don’t remember, but… don’t let him… don’t-”  
Cardinal turned to Nassau.  
“Go get that memory consultant. Now.”  
Nassau rushed out of the room, heavy steps behind me as he left. Jupiter was heaving and had fallen on her side. I don’t believe I’d ever seen anyone tremble so significantly.   
“Jupiter, hey, it’s okay, what happened? Was it a nightmare? What happened?”  
I kept my voice low to avoid frightening her more. I checked her pulse. Her heartbeat was racing faster than I had assumed was even possible safely.   
“He… oh, fuck, he-”  
She began wailing, almost in anger as she struggled to remember what her dream had been about. I tried to steady her.   
“Who is he, Jupiter? Who?”  
“I CAN’T FUCKING REMEMBER-”  
She strained very hard, almost like she was suffering greatly simply from trying to remember.   
I hoped that the memory consultant would arrive soon.


	8. over (chapter 7)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> MAJOR TW// RAPE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, VIOLENCE AND GORE, DEATH, AND GENERAL AWFUL BULLSHIT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MAJOR TW// RAPE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, VIOLENCE AND GORE, DEATH, AND GENERAL AWFUL BULLSHIT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. 
> 
> You may notice a big change in Levi's behavior this chapter.  
> Her bond with Jupiter is very strong. Just keep that in mind.

JUPITER’S POV

It only seemed I had just now woken up, really, and I was on the floor… surrounded by people, all looking at me with gazes that screamed anxiety. My body was quivering violently, and for what I didn’t understand why. It was certainly confusing to wake up in an unfamiliar room surrounded by people you only kinda knew… except Levi, who was leaning in very close, like she was holding me down.  
“Jupiter, who is he?!”  
“Huh? Wh-What?”  
My head was throbbing, pain rising and falling like the tide. Pricks of electricity stung my skull. I wondered why I was so slippery, and it was then I realized I was drenched in sweat… and my abdomen hurt like a sorry ass motherfucker.  
“Jupiter?”  
“I don’t know a ‘he,’ what are you talking about-”  
I slowly tried struggling to sit up, when I realized that Levi was in fact holding me down, with great force too.  
“Let me go-”  
“Only if you promise to stop hitting yourself in the head-”  
I don’t remember doing that. Dr. Adrians stood above me, hands out as though to steady me. And someone else… was here? What the hell was Mr. Penweather doing here? His expression was that same soft, kind expression he tended to hold, except it was laden with worry. He had been by to see me a few times when I was with Kandi, and we held long conversations about clothing and politics. He was a real nice guy, still very extravagant, and had become a sort of friend. He seemed to be full of money, and it reminded me of my childhood, when I had the allowance to spend on anything I wanted. I usually blew it on clothes and fabric, but sometimes I bought gifts for… Well, anyway.  
“Lukas..?”  
I mumbled, trying to blink among the bright lights.  
“Jupiter, I came looking for you and they said you tried to kill yourself, and then when I got here you were freaking out, what is going on, love?!”  
Oh, I guess I did do that. No wonder my stomach hurt like a bitch. I rubbed my head as Levi let go of me, still keeping her hands out just in case.  
“I don’t… remember freaking out? And what is this about a he, I-”  
“You had some kind of nightmare and kept begging for us to keep “him” from getting to you, and we’re just trying to figure out-”  
“What?”  
I tried getting to my feet, but Dr. Adrians motioned for me to get back on the bed. I obliged, considering it was significantly more comfortable than the damned floor.  
“You were speaking in Metyavskin too, and we couldn’t understand you…”  
I was pretty fuckin’ embarassed, I wasn’t gonna lie. God, that was real dumb of me, to act like that, and then not even remember it. Like, seriously, Jupiter?!  
“Sorry, guys. It… it won’t happen again.”  
“That’s not what we’re concerned about. Cardinal believes your memories are coming back. We’re fetching Tayami now, it’ll be okay though-”  
“NO. DON’T.”  
The voice that erupted from my throat was not my own, yet it sounded just the same.  
“I mean, I’m fine, really-”  
Everyone looked at each other. Levi’s face scrunched up a little.  
“You’re not very fine. You tried to kill yourself-”  
“I’m sure that’s unrelated to me frothing at the mouth on the floor like a salted slug-”  
It was then that Commander Nassau stepped in the room with Tayami following close behind. The two of them shared a determined and concerned expression.  
“Jupiter, we’re going to find out what happened today…”  
“I SAID I DON’T WANT TO-”  
There it was again. Opening my mouth without meaning to.  
The static image of a tall man flashed by in my head. He laughed at me.  
My heart stopped.  
When I came back, Tayami was now at the foot of my bed, speaking in hushed tones with Nassau, glancing over at me occasionally. Levi was holding my wrist.  
“Don’t slap yourself, Jupiter-”  
“I didn’t-”  
“I JUST WATCHED YOU-”  
Leviathan’s voice was raspy and exasperated, and the guilt was building up inside me. If only I’d died last night, I wouldn’t be stressing her out.  
Tayami turned to look at me.  
“Jupiter, I’m going to break the lock in your memoryscape. It may… it may be much for you. I have to though.”  
“You don’t have to do anything, it’s better if you don’t, I think, I mean, c’mon, really-”  
I spoke quickly, and as I trailed off I began speaking my native tongue instead.  
“Jupiter.”  
“Whazzat?”  
I looked over at Levi expectantly.  
“I’m here for you, okay? We have to know.”  
“Maybe it’s better if you didn’t.”  
I bit my tongue, and everyone looked confused.  
“What...what do you know?”  
“I don’t know… that just came out.”  
Adrians whispered to Nassau, before looking back at me.  
“We planned to let them come back organically, but seeing the amount of stress its putting you under… We thought it may be best if we ripped it off like a bandaid”  
“Seriously, could I not have someone going through my memories? I think that’d be neat-”  
“Jupiter. Please understand. We’re going to help you.”  
Tayami stepped closer and put her hand out. I batted her away and began to spark.  
“I said, I don’t…”  
Images began flashing by in rapid succession, of which I could not see but could only feel.  
Tayami opened her eye. 

\-------------------  
THE MEMORYSCAPE (NO POV)

Tayami awoke in the same room as before. Red walls, black trim, multiple photos… but something was very wrong.  
The window had been broken, and snow was pouring inside with reckless abandon. Layers had begun to form inside the home. The fireplace was out.  
Jupiter was shivering under the covers of her bed.  
Jupiter was also sitting on the covers.  
There were two Jupiters, one a hazy fog-like version, another the real one. The haze had her hand on Jupiter’s shoulder. She looked distressed, but not nearly in as much suffering as the poor girl under the covers.  
Pictures on the wall had fallen and cracked, the image held inside a distorted, dark version of what they once had. All images of Vivian were gone. The laughter Tayami had heard previously reverberated more intensely around the house. The door was broken down, splintered. The cold was unbearable. Tayami knew she had to be careful. Pain felt here may not actually injure her physical body, but she would feel it.  
The quiet sobbing of the girl under the covers was shiver-inducing. The hazy version of her gently stroked her back, leaning in close and whispering gentle reassurances. The sobbing would not stop, but was kept as quiet as possible.  
“Wh.. what happened here-”  
The hazy version of Jupiter jumped, swiveling her head around.  
“No, no, you can’t be here… you have to go, it isn’t safe-”  
“I have to unlock the door.”  
Tayami’s voice, while shaky, was headstrong.  
The haze looked back at her companion briefly before standing up and approaching Tayami.  
“You don’t understand, nobody will understand, and you won’t believe any of it… You can’t endanger yourself like this, I told you it isn’t safe-”  
This version of Jupiter was deadly serious, and she placed two cold hands on Tayami’s heavy shoulders.  
“I must. It cannot be… so bad.”  
Tayami surveyed the room once more, the fatal chill shaking her to her bones and innards.  
Cracks had formed in the walls, and sawdust fell from the ceiling, presumably due to the weight of the storm outside. She stepped to the window, attempting to look out. It was only snow and blackness. Only the frigid air existed outside.  
Her heels turned slowly to face both Jupiters. The bedridden one’s eyes were wide open, pulled apart by what only looked like absolute terror, her teeth chattering wildly.  
“Jupiter, your room is falling apart.”  
The haze spoke up.  
“I’ll get it under control, I swear, but don’t open that door or-”  
“We need to help her.”  
The haze stuck a thumbnail in her mouth and chewed, nervously looking between the floor, Tayami, and the door.  
“I...I…”  
The fog squeezed her eyes shut before opening them. Dew formed at the corners, condensating on her hazey skin.  
“I can’t… I can’t protect her anymore. I…”  
The fog choked back her tears, turning away to hide them.  
“Can… can you protect her for me?”  
“I can’t, but I know for sure she’ll be safe with people who care deeply for her.”  
The haze began to pull at her hair, little puffs of smoke trailing off. She groaned, growled, and huffed, trying to wrap her head around not being able to protect Jupiter any longer.  
When she realized it was over, her expression turned soft, and she let go of her head. She made steady eye contact with Tayami, gaze becoming gentle.  
“It’s been three years… Since I escaped. I’ve been here for her ever since. She had nobody.”  
Tears began to spilling out.  
“But now, she has Levi. And Lukas. And Nassau. And Cardinal. And Kandi… she isn’t alone. I’m not alone…”  
Her head fell to her hands, covering her eyes as she began to sob in sync with the alterior version in bed. Their hands covered their faces at the same time.  
“Please don’t leave us alone.”

And with that, the haze disappeared in a cloud of smog and the door creaked open slowly. 

Tayami knew what had to happen.

Her sandaled footsteps were quiet on the floorboards. Soon, they faded into silence. She was alone in blackness, a void all around her. All her senses told her to get out as quickly as possible. She could not. She had a job.  
She heard shouting from her left, louder and louder as she began to run from it.  
Suddenly, two people stood in front of her in the midst of the neverending darkness. A world began to fade into shape, the same elegant front door opened to show the couple standing together, the man reflexively in front. Tayami looked at her feet to find platform boots in the snow.  
He pointed a hunting rifle in her face. They shouted something in Metyavskin, the woman holding her face and running off. The man had the same eye shape as Jupiter. The woman had a similar hair texture.  
Her parents.  
Why would they have pointed a gun at her?  
Suddenly, their voices became clear.  
You’re a monster, you fiend! Get off our property before I blow your brains out-  
The voice faded. The image froze in time.  
Tayami began to run the other direction, hurrying as quickly as she could away, the experience of being rejected so violently coursing through her. She began to cry.  
Her foot caught on an edge.  
She began falling, falling, falling in darkness, until she landed on her back with a painful crunch on a stairwell. The stairs were old, dark cyan blue wooden basement stairs, the boards creaked under Tayami’s weight.  
But the smell…  
The odour was unbearable, a sickening smell of decaying flesh and death crawling through the dank air. Tayami did not want to continue, but she did so, standing up and heading down the stairs slowly. When she arrived at the bottom, all she saw was…  
Bodies. Lots and lots of bodies.  
All burnt, electrocuted, bludgeoned, shot or stabbed. They were decaying at various rates, piled on top of each other, flies and maggots eating away at their bodies. Tayami took the moment to count… fifty-one. Fifty one bodies decayed in this crying basement, the walls shifting uncomfortably. It got colder.  
She looked up to see another door at the other side of the room.  
She had never felt this feeling before, just looking at it.  
Complete, utter, and total anguish. Physical, emotional… Pain unlike anything else she had ever seen, thought, or heard.  
She forced her foot forward, each step becoming shakier and shakier. The smell got worse.  
The closer to the door she got, the more despair she felt, the more ill and frightened, and the worse the smell and cold became.  
Slowly. One step at a time.  
Her hand glanced over the doorknob.  
She opened it.  
The sound was unbearable, a metal screeching against concrete.  
In the blackness stood a man.  
Odd. There is no one else here except Jupiter and I.  
He faced away from her, wearing a tidy and furred uniform, keeping him toasty amidst all the icy air.  
“Welcome!”  
He spoke cheerily, throwing his hands up gently.  
His body turned, and he smiled warmly upon her. His expression faltered slightly.  
“Ah… who a’ you? I expected… a friend.”  
He tilted his head.  
Dread simmering inside her, Tayami stepped forward.  
“I… I could ask… you the same thing.”  
Her teeth were chattering.  
He began to laugh.  
That laugh.  
The same she had heard earlier.  
She froze.  
“Oh, love, don’t worry! I don’t bite… usually.”  
He laughed again, holding his belly to keep himself stable. He wore knee-high leather boots, a fur-lined coat, and badges upon badges adorned it.  
His hair was curly, black and hung lightly in his face. His grin cut through his pale face, and he clasped his hands together, closing the piercing blue eyes that had studied her so closely.  
“Now that I’ve met a lovely new friend, I’d like to show you what I’m most proud of, er, What are you doin’?”  
He asked calmly as Tayami’s hands gripped his cheeks tightly.  
How..? How..? How is he so real..? I’ve never…  
Seeing a figure who was not the host in a memoryscape this clear and vivid was near impossible… unless the imprint had been so strong… but then why wasn’t Vivian here..? And why…  
It dawned upon Tayami suddenly that she was in grave danger. She took off running the other direction, one of her sandals falling off among it all, and disappearing into blackness. She froze when she realized that the door she’d entered from was gone. He began to cackle.  
“You… You really fink I’d let you go so easy?”  
He continued his cacophonous laughter, throwing his head back and howling like a dog.  
“No, no love. Fat’s real funny. Fat’s rich… No, I have some fings to show you while you’re here. Fat’s what you came for, yeah?”  
He clapped his hand and cement walls and bars sprung from the darkness, rising up like ancient stone towers. The floor became a frozen cement, stretching as far as she could see. Snow pummeled in through the cell bars… the cold was unbearable.  
Tayami scooted back away from him.  
“No, you’re my esteemed guest! How about I show you around a littl’, hm?”  
Things began to blitz by, time passing and things moving. But one thing stayed the same.  
A girl, sitting alone in a frozen cell. Black and yellow hair. Scratching herself.  
“That’s my prized possession.”  
He giggled, covering his mouth.  
Another version of himself walked by the cell as they watched, banging on the cell walls in the dead of night.  
“YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO FUCKIN’ SLEEP-”  
He screamed, and the girl covered her head with her arms and bit her tongue.  
Time whizzed by again.  
She watched the girl starve herself, refuse to eat food. He forced open the cell door and shoved food down her throat violently. The girl almost choked, and after she had swallowed, he threw her into the concrete wall and exited.  
“Fis stuff is boring.”  
He rolled his eyes, swiping through memories. He walked over to Tayami and picked her up by the back of her neck, letting her dangle as he was at least a foot taller than her.  
“Ooh, I like this one-”  
A man was in the cell with the girl this time. She was cowering in the corner, covering her head. The man inside was screaming back at the tall man on the outside, the same one holding her by her neck. He pulled the large shotgun off his back and fired three rounds into the man inside the cell, blood and guts splattering across the walls, some falling onto the girl who was screaming as the man was blasted into oblivion.  
No one came to remove the corpse. The tall man simply stalked away, his bootsteps clacking far. He laughed. So did the one holding Tayami.  
“Fat’s a good one… but we 'aven’t even gotten to the best parts!”  
Tayami remained silent as though she was unable to speak entirely.  
Things whirred by once more, and it showed the man beating the poor girl into near death. Whir. Again. Whir. Again. Whir. Again. Like a daily routine of suffering, the girl in the cell was beaten to a pulp, blood spattering out of her nose and mouth, spitting an extra tooth out, being choked, struggling, pain.  
The man holding Tayami just watched with a smile plastered on his face. It never seemed to dim.  
“Ah, and here’s my favorite… fese are good memories, you know fat? I took so much joy from fem-”  
He was in the cell with her. Beating her, beating her, beating her before holding her by the throat in the air and throwing her small frame into the cement. A loud crack was heard, and the girl began whimpering quiet “please’s…”  
Tayami was horrified at what she was seeing.  
He had ripped her clothes off and was raping her.  
More images flashed by of a similar experience. Tayami covered her mouth to keep from screaming as it continued.  
He used the barrel of his gun one time. She was tied up in another. Another she was unconscious, and another she fought back. Sometimes she was in a very nice office with a grand piano, music playing throughout the entire scene. But she was still naked, still being assaulted, and still weak.  
What they all had in common though, was him winning. He never lost against her. He always won. He always got what he wanted.  
“Yeah, fese were the best. You see, if she was good for me I’d give her a blanket or some vodka, she liked vodka a lot. When she wasn’t…”  
He clicked his tongue in his cheek. The sound caused every muscle in Tayami’s body to seize.  
“Took her clothes, beat her, fucked her, whatever.”  
He rolled his eyes, reminiscing on the experiences.  
“Eventually she stopped fighting. All it took was a little…”  
He clicked his tongue in his cheek again.  
“And she’d do whatever I said.”  
He applauded, laughing again and grinning wide. Another scene began.  
This time, she was fighting and fighting hard. She was screaming for help, screaming for him to stop, screaming and screaming and kicking and punching and he had enough. He stopped smiling.  
She had never seen such a terrifying sight. His voice began to seep through the scene.  
“If you won’t behave, I’ll fucking make you-”  
He pulled a switchblade out and put it under her eye.  
It sunk deep into the flesh, and she squealed like a pig at slaughter as it sunk farther and farther down and was dragged across the underside of her eye, before tossing her to the ground and leaving her to bleed in the cold. He jumped on her. Tatami tried not to watch, but her eyes wouldn’t shut. Everything started to move faster. Watching rape after rape, beating after beating, psychological manipulation after another, all while an elegant piano played in the background intercut with harsh words and curses against the girl, calling her a monster, a beast, a disgusting creature, telling her she deserved all of it, telling her she deserved to die but that he would spare her because he was kind that way, when in reality all she wanted to do was die. Her suffering was impossible to comprehend. Some scenes were of her trying to hang herself with her jumpsuit, only to be yanked down from the noose by her feet and beaten to a pulp. Another where she tried suffocating herself in the snow. Her wailing was incessant, and the man’s laughter only grew as time went on. He enjoyed every goddamned second of her torture.  
“WHY?!”  
“WHAT DID SHE DO TO DESERVE THIS?!”  
Tayami cried, her voice finally giving way.  
Everything froze. The man turned to her, still holding her neck and smiled.  
“She rejected me. I asked her on a date, and she said no. And I get what I want.”  
He dropped her suddenly, kicking her in the side and watching her slide along the darkness.  
“I suppose you want to know about the people she slaughtered? This monster we’re inside of against her will?”  
Images began flashing by once again. And it dawned on her.  
Mind control.  
She was standing inside Jupiter’s body in an emptied pool, an arena of sorts, while a terrified prisoner stood across from her. A gunshot. A fight began and Jupitr’s body moved against her will, pummeling her opponent into bits, electrocuting and bludgeoning. Jupiter’s body struggled against the force of the magic, trying to regain control and stop this madness, but she couldn’t. She was helpless.  
She snapped the spine of her opponent, paralyzing her.  
The prisoner was still alive.  
The man who was torturing her raised his gun, looking her dead in the eyes.  
“Good job Sparky. Relish your win.”  
And he pulled the trigger, the female prisoner’s head turning to a mash of brains and blood. It ran over Jupiter’s bare feet, missing three toes. The memory ended.  
Tayami cried out, trying to run away as fast as she could. The faster she ran, the more scenes she saw of this abuse, this horrible horrible abuse, how helpless the poor girl was and how scared. She got her answers. She wanted out.  
The man would have none of it. He grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her up to face him, his smile everlasting.  
“I didn’t say you could fucking go, Tayami.”  
“H-how do you know my name?!”  
He just laughed,  
“Who ARE you?!”  
“Well if I told you, that would ruin my fun.”  
He closed his eyes softly, and threw her down. He disappeared from view as she plunged into the void, and the memories just kept coming. Over and over, more and more vivid, so much that Tayami could feel every touch and punch.  
“LET ME OUT-”  
“PLEASE, LET ME OUT-”  
She screamed, over and over until her voice gave out. Someone was shaking her violently. She closed her eye.

\---------

LEVI’S POV

I shook Tayami to wake her up, but she wouldn’t close her blind eye. When she finally did, it was a relief. She had been wailing and wailing for a long time, and we had desperately tried to wake her up.  
“Tayami- TAYAMI-”  
I began to grow horrified. What the hell was going on in Jupiter’s memories that could be this… awful?”  
The moment Tayami let go from the memoryscape, she was choking herself.  
“L-let me die, oh gods, let me die-”  
The feelings of the memories must’ve been… worse than we imagined. I pulled her hands from her throat and held her wrists, which only caused more feeble shrieking.  
“TAYAMI-”  
I shook her, but she just kept sobbing.  
I didn’t know what to do. Cardinal grabbed her and escorted her out of the room as she covered her face. I stayed near Jupiter. I almost prayed she wouldn’t wake up and have to suffer whatever she’d remembered. She struggled in her sleep, kicking her sheets.  
Lukas and Nassau looked at me and Jupiter. I sat on the end of her bed and kept a gentle hand on her leg.  
What in the everliving fuck happened to her?  
Rage began to boil inside me.  
Tayami would tell us, when she could.  
I could still hear her cries from here.  
“Levi, love… do you… know at all what happened?”  
“I have no idea… and I almost am afraid to find out…”  
The three of us sat in silence, expectantly waiting for Jupiter to open her eyes.  
The moment she did, we held our breath.  
At first, she did nothing, only staring blankly head. Her eyes got wider and wider as time passed, and she began mumbling in Metyaviskin, her volume only increasing with time.  
Suddenly she’d thrown herself up and began shocking herself violently.  
I couldn’t stop her.  
Lukas sprung into action, casting a spell to force her into submission, suppressing her magic. I didn’t know he could do that, but I didn’t know too much about him.  
I called her name loudly, but her response was less than thrilling.  
She began screaming in the same way.  
I’d only heard a scream like this one time… when a mother we were helping saw her daughter’s body. It was the sound of complete and utter hopelessness.  
I wrapped my arms around her tightly and held her. She struggled a little, but I just held her. I tightened my grip, not wanting her to think I was leaving.  
She just. Kept. Screaming.  
After about five minutes, Cardinal stepped in the room with a vial of something and a syringe.  
I didn’t want to let go.  
She spoke to us softly, Jupiter’s wails fading into muffled sobs as she pushed her head into my shoulder.  
“I’m going to tranq her. She’s under too much stress at it is, and she’s going to rip open her wound-”  
She stuck the needle into Jupiter’s arm, who did not react. I spoke gently into Jupiter’s hair, running my hand through it.  
It was soft, albeit with static electricity dancing over.  
“Shh… it’s okay. It’ll be okay, I’m right here. I’m right here, Jupiter…”  
Her name meant so much to me now. It was a calling on my tongue that sat there and simmered over time. She meant so much to me now.  
And seeing her in this amount of pain was too much to bear.  
Her sobs became soft cries, and slowly she began falling asleep.  
Even after that, I kept holding her.  
Lukas walked over and ran his hands through her hair too, trying to keep her calm even though she had to be out like a light.  
I had to know what happened.  
Tayami shakily stepped out of the other room, propping herself up on the doorframe.  
The first thing she said was:  
“She didn’t mean to kill those people in prison…”  
Relief washed over me. I had been right. Something had happened, an accident, probably.  
“She was mind-controlled.”  
The relief I’d experienced washed away.  
All of us looked to her as she kept her face covered with her other hand. She began to relay everything she’d seen to us. Every detail, every moment.  
The entire time, my body only seethed further and further.  
I realized I’d been holding her so tightly I could have hurt her, but I still wouldn’t let go and only loosened my grip.  
The amount…. The torture she’d been through, the pain, the suffering…  
I couldn’t imagine...and even then, Tayami didn’t see every memory. Only some.  
Tayami had to be traumatized too.  
Lukas had begun to weep.  
“So...so this woman, Jupiter… we ruined her life and it was destroyed further by some man?”  
Tayami nodded solemnly. Her face wouldn’t rise to ours.  
“He wouldn’t tell me his name… he only showed me what he’d done…”  
She went on to describe him, detail by detail, the marks on his face, his earring...  
I stayed there with Jupiter for hours. She slept soundly, thankfully having a moment of peace among her agony.  
I knew what I had to do.  
I would fucking kill that man.  
In the name of the Stag, I would fucking kill him.

…

I had only been gone for a second.  
Just a moment.  
And I had come back to the most abhorrent sight to see.  
It had been four days since her memories were revealed, and she spent most of her time tranquilized for the time being. If she wasn’t, she’d cry and cry, and refuse to eat, refuse to drink, refuse anything. She only seemed to yield, even a little, for Lukas or I.  
And I left for one moment.  
As I stood outside the door, I heard an odd voice and barged in.  
He was on top of her.  
A man, black hair messy, was sitting on top of her. His hand was reaching far down her throat, and his other was down the ream of her sweatpants. He hadn’t noticed me come in at first, growling something in her ear. She was laying motionless, frozen, choking on this motherfucker’s fingers. I ran towards him, and he turned, grinned at me, and then disappeared.  
Just like the way the cult members did.  
He must have had a band.  
“Jupiter, oh my god, Jupiter-”  
I ran up next to her. She didn’t even look at me. She wasn’t even really breathing.  
Tears began to run from her eyes.  
I scooped her up.  
And then I noticed she was bleeding.  
Her scar had been cut open again. Even deeper, this time. Blood soaked her pants.  
No.  
No, he couldn’t…  
I screamed for Dr. Adrians, who came running in. By this time, I must have been covered in my own tears as I turned to her.  
“He found her. He fucking found her. And then he just disappeared, and I…”  
“Move, Levi.”  
Was all she said. I quickly let go of Jupiter and stepped back, covering my mouth.  
How? How did he find her? How did he get a hold of a teleportation band? He was just as Tayami had described days ago. A knife clattered to the floor from Dr. Adrians hand, and she shook her head.  
She’d pulled it out of her...her pants.  
I fell to my knees and pounded my fists on the floor.  
No.  
No no no no no no.  
I would fucking kill him.  
I had to.  
For her.

\------------

?????

A man opened the door to his mansion’s pool, the large bracelet on his right arm clattering against the glass. He was having the best of days. And he’d have an even better one now, lounging by the pool as he always did.  
And he’d come back for her.  
She was his, after all.


	9. love (chapter 8)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jupiter is bedridden after the events of late chapter 7. Levi and Nassau meet with the Feather Republic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW// Mentions of r*pe

JUPITER’S POV

All I could see when I closed my eyes was his face. All I could feel was him fucking touching me. And all I could hear was his shitty cockney accent, and his laugh.  
I was fucking losing it.  
Leviathan never left my side unless she was going to research more about the case. When she did, she had someone else in the room, and made sure they stayed nearby. She was very worried about me…  
She was right to be.  
Every breath I took was one I regretted, and wished I could take back.  
I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror on my few trips to the bathroom.  
And most of all, everything hurt.  
My eye… it hurt to even change the direction I was looking and the stuffy bandage was perceivable just outside my peripheral. My stomach was still in a lot of pain as it struggled to heal, but the most painful part of me was…  
I couldn’t think about it. If I thought about it, I’d break down, I’d start crying again, and I was sick of people seeing me a hopeless and weak little lump of flesh. But…  
I had to go back to it sometime, and the unbearable stinging and stabbing pain I felt wasn’t anything I could ignore.  
He’d found me.  
He knew where I was.  
He’d fucked me with a knife.   
And I knew he’d come back.  
I wanted to die before that could happen. I couldn’t stand being awake.   
But sleep brought no peace either.  
The nightmares were constant, and just as bad as being in the moment. Then there were the times when I was awake where something would send me back to prison and I’d come back to reality a crumpled mess. Dr. Adrians was in the room with Levi and I most of the time, and Levi tried to keep things light. But I saw the rage behind her eyes, and couldn’t help but feel it was all my fault… after all, I had killed all those people and done those horrible things that warranted what he did to me. Besides, if I had just gone on a date with him, none of this would have happened.  
That day in the snow where Vivian and I walked home from school, and a twenty-five year old man approached me, introduced himself in his spiffy uniform, and began to flirt with me. I told him to fuck off. Maybe if I’d given him a chance and wasn’t so fucking selfish…  
I shivered at night. It was hard not to, this permanent cold feeling surrounding me. It had only been two days since he’d found me again.  
Levi wasn’t here right now. I just laid in my fucking bed and stared at the ceiling.   
I was so tired.  
Dr. Adrians came over to speak with me.   
“Jupiter, you need to eat…”  
She’d brought some food with her. I just rolled over in my bed.   
“Jupiter. If you don’t, we’ll have to…”  
“Force feed me. I know.”  
I kept my voice low. I couldn’t fucking eat. Even if I wanted to.  
I knew I couldn’t die this way, but the feeling of food entering my mouth was misery.   
Dr. Adrians sighed and leaned over me.  
“I know it’s hard. I know you’re upset.”  
“No you don’t.”  
My voice came out as a harsh growl.   
“I do know. I know what happened.”  
“And maybe it would be nice if you fucking didn’t and just wrote me off as some psycho bitch like everyone else. It’d be less…”  
“Shameful?”  
I bit the inside of my cheek. I didn’t want to say it. She placed a hand on my side. My hands just moved to cover my face again… and here came the waterworks and the nausea. My stomach turned as I began to weep, and I tried to keep myself quiet so she wouldn’t notice.  
“Someone wants to see you.”  
I turned over.  
Lukas Penweather was standing over me.   
“Hello, l- sorry. Hello, Jupiter.”  
He crouched down to my height.  
“Fuck do you want?”  
He laughed a little.  
“I wanted to speak with you. About whatever you want.”  
He waved Cardinal out of the room, and she obliged, leaving silently.  
I turned away from him.  
“You know, you remind me a lot of Lucia…”  
His voice was gentle.  
“She…”  
He paused, sucking in a breath.  
“I’m going to tell you a secret. I promised I wouldn’t tell, but…”  
I turned back over in intrigue.  
“She killed herself because she, too, was tortured. She was kidnapped. When she was freed, she couldn’t bear to remember it anymore. But you…”  
“You can survive in her stead.”  
“I don’t want to.”  
“That’s what I was afraid of. That’s why I came to speak with you.”  
“You gonna give me a pep talk or somethin’?”  
“No. I’ve come to promise I’ll be here for you. We may not have known each other long but… I feel she wants me here to help you. So you don’t face the same fate she did. Your suffering is immeasurable, I know… you’re afraid of the government and you’re afraid of me. I can see the lingering resentment in your eyes whenever we speak. I know you don’t mean for it, but you always stay an inch farther away.”  
He looked to the side.  
“I’ve been thinking about you. You matter to me, you know?”  
“So you’re here to guilt me into staying alive.”  
“That’s not my intention. I just want to let you know people love you and that… Levi loves you a great deal. She has never been so invested in a case prior to this, I don’t believe.”  
“She hates me, you know that? I’m a bitch to her.”  
“Is that why she refuses to leave your room and goes out complaining when she has to?”  
I paused to think on that. I thought she was just doing her job. I suppose she didn’t have to stay.  
“She cares deeply for you, Jupiter. We’ve all grown to care about you. You aren’t a monster.”  
I sat up a little.  
“We believe in you.”  
I started crying again.   
I didn’t know what to say…  
All I had in me was a small choking noise.  
And then he hugged me.  
I thought I heard him crying too.  
“Jupiter, we love you.”  
I raised my arms to hug him back.   
We cried together for a while, and I was grateful. I was grateful I had somebody now. I was grateful that I wasn’t alone.  
For the first time in seven years, I was loved. I was not alone. 

\--------------

LEVI’S POV

It was disquieting, to be away from Jupiter this long. I was afraid of leaving her alone, even with other people watching her. I was afraid she'd hurt herself. I was afraid of who would find her.  
She didn’t have much to say to us about the man. She couldn’t even say his name. She knew it, but the words wouldn’t come out.   
But I had to be far from her now, because I was meeting with the Feather District.  
While she’d been resting, Lukas pardoned her of all her charges in our district. Him and the other Advisors found it unfair to charge a woman for crimes she was forced to commit and not in control over. As long as she did not leave, she would be safe. We moved to make it official with them on their home turf.   
The District Liner ride was one I was used to, having traveled to other Districts on assignment when necessary. It was a long ride, about seven hours, but it was alright enough. I spent the entire time reviewing files and trying desperately to find some kind of connection between Jupiter and the missing Captain. The man who had tortured her, who had broken her. I was here to put her back together and put an end to this mess. Nassau and I both stepped off the Liner into the frigid winds. It was a very cold place, truly. Today, we were meeting with Robert Greenwater, a member of the five-person republic. He was very influential and spoke for the town of Crovoska himself. He was the person who had her hunted like an animal.   
Trudging through the slush, I had time to talk with Nassau about what happened to Jupiter. He helped in the ways he could, but all I wanted for her was justice. It was roughly thirty minutes before we arrived at the Republic Building, a grand blue brick building that towered high above.   
Making our way up the steps, I could only feel anger boiling beneath my skin.  
The lady inside directed us to the office of Mr. Greenwater, even stopping to give us a small tour. I didn’t really care right now.  
Arriving in Robert Greenwater’s office, I took off my coat. The one Jupiter had made for me… and noticed a small stitch on the inside. It was a yellow lightning bolt, a signature of sorts left behind by her. It reminded me of who I was here for.  
For her.  
Robert Greenwater arrived to our appointment late, but apologized profusely. His accent was that of a Commonspeaker, not a Feather District native. He sat down behind his desk. To our left, a large fireplace sat lit, with a mantle full of photos. I would look at them later.   
“I am so sorry, friends. I was caught up in a little bit of banter with a fellow Republic member… How many I help you today?”  
“We’re here for ya to overturn the charges on Jovana Malcovic.”  
In the middle of a sip of tea, Mr. Greenwater spat it out.   
“EXCUSE ME?”  
Nassau chuckled, leaning forward.  
“Ya see, my lieutenant Levi here did some excellent investigatin’ after her capture in our district and kept it quiet to avoid any meddlin’. And we found…”  
He pointed his head at me.  
I didn’t want to speak to this man.  
“She did not do any of it. Her memories were not initially reviewed in the case before her conviction. The prison murders were under mind control. The explosion was an accident, and she had nothing to do with the death of Vivian Westerfield.”  
The look of shock on Robert’s face was priceless, his jaw unhinged in awe.   
“W-Where’s the evidence?”  
“If ya don’t believe us, sir, you can ask the memory consultant. She’s the expert in the Fin District, and she went through a helluva lotta trouble to get those memories. She’s seeing a therapist now ‘cuz of it.”  
Robert closed his eyes for a moment. He was lost in thought. I sat silently.  
“You mentioned mind control. Who do you think that was?”  
While Nassau and him began to discuss the logistics of the entire thing, I stood up to walk over to the fireplace. I picked up a photo of presumably his wife, a family trip, and then a close up of the whole family.  
It was him.  
In the center.  
The man I saw on top of Jupiter that day was smiling back in the photo.  
I almost threw the photo against the wall.  
“Ahem. Excuse me, Mr. Greenwater.”  
“Hm- Yes?”  
“Who is this?”  
“Ah, yes, that’s my son, Milos. Isn’t he a handsome man? Very talented too…”  
I gingerly set the photo back.   
Milos.  
Milos Greenwater.  
“I have another question for you, Mr. Greenwater.”  
He almost looked pale in the face.  
“Yes?”  
“Did your son happen to be Captain of the Crovoska Guard seven years ago? And then possibly the head of Yuferev Prison three years ago?”  
He almost turned as green as his last name.  
“No, that’s not-”  
“Don’t. Lie.”  
Nassau backed me up, squinting at him.  
“How… how did you..?”  
I frowned at him.  
“I went digging. I found no files on him, no captain, no head of prisons. But we did find…”  
I slammed my fist on the desk.  
“...him raping an innocent woman.”  
Robert was incredulous and almost began to fume from his ears.  
“You did NOTHING of the sort. NOW you’re bluffing, NOW you’re blowing smoke up my ass-”  
“The memories weren’t faked, Mr. Greenwater.”   
It almost brought a smile to my face.   
“Why’d you hide him, Mr. Greenwater? Why were his files removed?”  
“I couldn’t have my son disgraced, he let that bastard for a woman escape his prison and was subsequently fired, and I wouldn’t allow that to be kept on record-”  
What a coward.   
“So you covered it up?”  
“I wouldn’t say that-”  
“We would. And I think your fellow Republic members will agree.”  
We began to move towards the door, hearing everything we needed.  
“W-wait.”  
“Hm?”  
I turned my head to face him.   
“I’ll get her pardoned if you keep quiet.”  
“Where is he?”  
“Who?”  
“Don’t play dumb. Your son.”  
“That’s private information-”  
We took another step.  
“Wait-”

\------

JUPITER’S POV

I spent the rest of the afternoon talking with Lukas. It was really hard… talking about things that didn’t feel important anymore. I wished I could return to the days where we discussed each other's clothes without a care. Since he had disclosed his feelings about me being similar to his sister, I looked back to how perhaps he had treated me and why… I was another sister to him.  
I’d never… I wouldn’t know how to comprehend that.  
He was a very kind man, but his speaking mannerisms were too familiar sometimes, but he did catch this and kept some of his nicknames down to a minimum. It hurt to move, and he caught this too. He was always asking if he could get me anything or be of assistance and it meant something to me, that this incredibly wealthy and powerful man would bend to me as he saw I needed it.  
He must really miss his sister.  
I tried to keep him from doing too much for me. He usually insisted.  
Currently, I was sipping on a mug of warm tea he had absolutely been resolute about making me. It was a floral kind, the taste hitting the back of my throat gently and keeping me warm even though it was rather cold outside...or maybe it was just me.  
He sat in the chair next to me where Levi usually sat.  
“Jupiter…”  
I looked over at him. He winced a little.   
“What?”  
“That… big bandage under your eye just looks unpleasant. And you look very tired, friend.”  
I sighed a little. He put a gloved hand on my shoulder.  
“I wanted to ask you something… and I understand if you can’t answer.”  
Oh boy. Here it comes. I knew someone would ask eventually.  
“Can you… tell me the name of the man..?”  
I opened my mouth. No sound would come out. I tried again, resting my tongue in my mouth. A small squeak arose from the back of my throat. Every time I tried, I felt a horrible stinging inside of me, a wrenching I couldn’t tolerate, and I shut my mouth, leaving us in silence.  
“I understand…”  
The gravity of my situation hit me. What had happened to me. I had been trying not to think about it since my fits of insanity, and now I was forced to. Droplets began to well in the sides of my eyes, and I covered them with clenched fists. I bumped my renewed scar, a feeling imprinting down further and further.   
It had all come back at once. Every memory, every feeling, every thought, touch, spoken word and noise and beating all flooded back to me the moment I awoke those days ago. I spent much of that after asleep, simply reliving all of it over and over, once again. I knew I deserved it all. I knew for what I’d done I was a sickly being, and I deserved this intense suffering. But as though he was reading my mind, Lukas began to speak.   
“You didn’t deserve any of it, Jupiter. It was all an accident… you aren’t a monster. You’re a victim of circumstance.”  
“I don’t WANT to be a victim-”  
I looked up at him with watery eyes and a catch in my throat. Snot had begun to run out of my nose.   
“I had to have deserved this, why would it happen otherwise? I did something wrong, I must have-”  
“Some people are truly evil. Not everyone has a good justification for what they do. Some people are truly evil. Many of us do not encounter that cruelty… but you’ve lived to face it. You survived it. You are living now.”  
“I don’t want to be. I wish I’d died before he’d…”  
Lukas hugged me once again, letting me cry into the jacket slung over his shoulders.   
“I can’t imagine what you’re going through, friend. I can’t… begin to understand what may result from all of this.”  
I stayed quiet, aside from my choking sobs.  
I didn’t understand. It had to be my fault, I had done something, I was wrong, I couldn’t… I…  
I don’t know. But I knew that it hurt. And it hurt terribly. Every moment was a special kind of frozen hell, one where my brain could not comprehend the evil I supposedly faced, the man who…   
Who…  
I began to hit myself in the head. Fucking piece of shit. I just wanted to stop thinking.  
I didn’t want to think anymore.  
I didn’t want to live…  
Lukas pulled away from me, and I could tell he could see my thoughts swimming in my head, a violent swirling. He spent some time just looking at me. Eye contact hurt. I kept it away.  
“How…”  
“Hm?”  
“How am I supposed to live like this..?”  
Dejection was written on his face as he looked down.   
“I am afraid it will be hard. I am afraid that it will be a long process… but I want you to do it. I believe you can…”  
“You just want me alive so you can have your sister back, pig.”  
He was taken aback by this, putting a hand on his chest momentarily.  
“No, Jupiter. You remind me of her, but you are your own person, with loves and hates and feelings and thoughts that are nothing like hers. And I care about those. I care about you, Jupiter.”   
“Why?”  
He smiled.  
“Because you’re wonderful… you have so much personality. You have so much inside of you, more than what has happened to you. You aren’t your traumas, Jupiter.”  
Maybe it was true, but it certainly did not feel like that. All I felt was the dirtiness and ice all over me, the feeling of needing to shower over and over and over. For a moment, I almost wanted to return to prison and feel myself being consumed by the cold and the painful experiences. Because that… had to be all I was. A toy. A little plaything for the man who hurt me so. For him. If only he’d popped my head off like a child’s doll, I wouldn’t be sitting bedridden and in anguish. I kept oscillating between complete apathy, feeling nothing at all and feeling everything at once.  
And it was just… too much. I didn’t know what else to do but cry.  
And then I found myself wishing Levi was here. I vaguely remembered her holding me when I had come out of my memories, when I couldn’t do anything but scream for a time where I didn’t remember these things, where I was blissfully unaware of my own torture. Her arms were tight around me and her hold was steady, and she rubbed the back of my head in a way that no one ever had, not even my mother. She had never been home anyway.   
I wished she was here so I could…  
No, really?  
What are you, a cop?  
You want to what?  
Yeah, I just wanted to thank her, I guess. That’s all that that meant. I wanted to thank her in an easy way, but still…  
These feelings I had… the last time I felt them was 7 years ago, before Vivian died… before she was ripped away from me.  
Lukas was staring at me.  
“Yoo-hoo, Jupiter? Are you alright?”  
He waved a hand in front of my face and smiled, that soft, caring smile he so often had. He was such a nice guy, even to someone like me. A mean, rude, immature worthless hull of a person.   
“Yeah, I was just…”  
“Thinking about Levi?”  
I could feel my eyes bug out of my head.  
“No, no of course not, why the hell would I-”  
“When we talked, even if she sat nearby in silence, I recalled you’d say something you thought was funny and you’d turn to her expectantly. Never looked at me nearly so, as if you wanted some praise or affection. It was sweet. It’s okay that she matters to you, you know.”  
I didn’t even mean for it to happen, but I guess my face heated up a little. I foolishly threw my blanket over my head.  
Lukas began to laugh.  
“You’re very endearing, you know that? I wouldn’t be surprised if Levi thought the same about-”  
“SHUT UP-”  
My voice cracked. I couldn’t… she wouldn’t. She only pretended to like me. It was her job to be nice to me, it was-  
“She’s nicer to you than anybody else.”  
“HOW DO YOU KEEP DOING THAT?”  
“I trained myself to magically keep up with others' thoughts. Since I’m not expert, I can only hear the ends of thoughts, not the full ones, but it is enough to give me a clear picture. It proves useful in many political situations as well as mundane relationships. Not that our friendship is mundane, I just mean-”  
“Okay, fancy-ass.”

\---------------

LEVI’S POV

The train ride home from the Feather District was equally as long. I now mulled over the files we were given, with that disgusting fucker’s face on it. Milos Greenwater. Aged thirty-two. Heighted six-eight. Awarded multiple honors and headed multiple military investments such as Yuferev Prison and was Captain of the Crovoska guard. Black curly hair that hung loosely in his face, ice-blue eyes with no emotion behind them. A big, grandiose smile that was supposedly his trademark. He never stopped smiling.   
The snow rushed past the windows of the train.   
Something particularly caught my eye, and it was the amount of prisoners who had died under his leadership. More than average, and something in my gut told me even more were hidden.  
A lot of C.O.D’s were just “prison fights.” No other explanation, no autopsy, no specifics. Prison fight. It reminded of what Tayami had told us about one set of memories, where Jupiter’s body moved on its own without her control as she beat others mercilessly to near death. Where our friend Milos would finish him off.  
“Levi, you can take a break.”  
“Nonsense. I am busy.”  
Nassau interrupted my thought process, his elbow on the table and his head leaning in his hand. He looked at me with a dull expression.  
“Seriously. You’ve been workin’ non stop on that thing for months now. We got some answers. You should celebrate.”  
He turned over to reach into his satchel, a pulled out a packet of blood.   
“I ordered somethin’ nice for myself from the café cart. I brought this for you in case you got hungry. C’mon. It’s good stuff, I checked.”  
I took it from him… I was rather peckish. Checking the label, I was rather surprised to see the type of blood it was.  
“W-Where did you get sorcerer blood legally?”  
“I had to spend a lotta money gettin’ it from the blood bank, but I figured you deserved a treat. You work so hard all the time. And besides…You gotta very cute friend of yours who’d prolly be more ‘n willin’ to let you have some. You should get a taste for it.”  
I stared at him, mulling over his words. He started laughing. My face must’ve gone dark… Vampires still blush. We have blood, it is just very thick and a rich color.  
“That’s ridiculous. You’re ridiculous for even suggesting a thing such as-”  
“Aw, shut up. I’m just teasin’ ya, Levi. But, really…”  
His head tilted a little in suggestion.  
“She is rather cute, ain’t she? I know you think the same, otherwise you wouldn'ta gotten so flustered like that.”  
“I mean…”  
Nassau was… like my father. I suppose I could speak with him about this in the privacy of a train car.  
“I… I have thought about it.”  
“See, I told ya!”  
He threw his arms up before crossing them and slouching back in his seat.   
My face must have gotten darker. He started laughing at me again.  
“Your fang’s stickin’ out, Lev.”  
I quickly pulled it back in my mouth.  
“Stop it.”  
“Nah, this is too much fun. Whatcha like about her?”  
“Well… Like you said, she is rather cute… and she isn’t really as rude as she acts… I’ve seen her kindness. She’s quite sweet…”  
“And?”  
Nassau was having too much fun. I should stop indulging him.  
I twisted off the cap to the blood pack and took a sip.  
Now, I’d heard sorcerer’s blood was the sweetest, best tasting out there, on account of it being so… magical. But I didn’t quite expect that.  
“Holy sh-”  
“Oh, did Levi almost swear?”  
I bit the inside of my cheek.  
“It’s… again, how did you find yourself in possession of this? This is not easy to come by, in legal standing… you did get it legally, right?”  
“Oh, a’course. I went to the blood bank in town and asked if they had any. They said they’d need it for emergencies, and I said I only needed a little, for a treat for a friend. Once I slipped them a heavy bag of coins, they-”  
“You paid that much for this?”  
“It’s a gift, Levi.”  
I spent the rest of the train ride sucking on my little treat. I didn’t want to eat it too fast and waste it… I’d never had blood this purely sweet before. It was like… well, for non blood-eaters, it must have tasted like ambrosia or something.  
And I thought about her.  
I probably shouldn’t have. It wasn’t particularly respectful, but I almost couldn’t help it. I hadn’t had the time to truly think of her the way I did, and it was…  
She was really beautiful, to me. The way her hair stuck up was wholly adorable, and her little smile when she had one was just angelic. The meticulous care she tried taking care of herself, the way she stuck her tongue out when she didn’t like something, and her eyes.  
Her eyes were so… gorgeous. I oft had to keep myself from staring too much. They had so much life, magic behind them.   
These thoughts were ridiculous.   
I had to banish them. This was foolish. I couldn’t think this way about her, it wasn’t right.   
But… imagination never hurt anybody.   
And it wasn’t just her appearance. I’d begun to care for her deeply in every aspect, and the more time went on, the more angry I became with the man who’d hurt her this way. I wanted to see her happy. I wanted to see her underneath piles of fabric, working away on the thing she cared the most about.  
And I wanted to be able to get close to her without scaring her.   
Was this selfish?  
I began to plan our next move. District of the Gill was his home, on a breakoff island all to himself… what a filthy bastard… taking all that space for yourself.   
I couldn’t wait to get my hands on him and end this mess. Close this case once and for all.   
It had to end.


	10. sky (chapter 9)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jupiter gets a psychological evaluation. Leviathan gets closer to finding her newfound enemy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW// MENTIONS OF RAPE

LEVI’S POV

The plan was simple. Robert Greenwater had given us the address of his son, and we would head there and speak with him, guards speaking with guards. We wouldn’t alert him to what we were doing at all… my one worry is that he would recognize me. Nassau, Nimuel, and I gathered our things and put on our uniforms. The District of the Gill was absurdly warm, and I found it would be easiest for everyone if we just wore our bodysuits.   
Arriving there proved to be the hardest part of our plan thus far, since we had to take a boat from District of the Tail which was an entire District apart from the Horn, and this was all after we had a ten hour train ride. But we had finally gotten to the boat, and I felt hopelessly away from home. I felt hopelessly away from her… Lukas promised to be with her, as well as Dr. Adrians, and both of them promised if one of them wasn’t in the room that the other would be. Still, however, it only took this… this scum a few minutes. Regardless, I’d hoped she’d be alright. I found myself thinking about her a lot on the trip over, wishing she’d been able to come too. It’s for the better she didn’t… Besides, Dr. Adrians arranged Jupiter to speak with a psychological professional soon, who would hopefully get her diagnosed properly so that we’d know exactly what was going on… I’d read quite a bit about psychology, but mostly general topics and less about specific disorders… what I had seen in her behavior though didn’t bode well, and I couldn’t imagine the kinds of issues that her kind of trauma would bring up.  
I looked out across the sea on the front of the boat. It would be about five hours before we got there, and this boat was travelling fast thanks to the Poisson’s water magic at the back. Nassau approached me from behind.  
“Hey, kiddo. Whatcha thinkin’ about?”  
“Jupiter.”  
“I coulda told ya that. What about?”  
“Just concerned.”  
“She’s safe, y’know.”  
“That’s what I thought too.”  
My tone was less than warm, which wasn’t unusual, but Nassau placed a hand on my back anyway. I kept my arms crossed over the edge of the boat. The anger I felt when I thought about the fucker who did this to her… I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with emotion. I almost wanted to crash the boat. I knew I couldn’t deliver justice if I drowned in rage, though, so I kept still.  
“Levi, when you brought this case to me, I didn’t realize how much’d mean to ya. In fact, I considered turning her in. I thought you were…”  
“Insane?”  
“Yeah… but I’m glad I trusted you. We’ve made a wonderful friend.”  
Something began to shift inside me, a sick, lonely feeling.   
“What...what do you think happens after this is all over? Where’s she going to go?”  
The thought of her leaving was unbearable. If she was cleared in the District of the Feather, wouldn’t she want to go home?   
“I can’t tell ya that… but… when we were in the District of the Feather, I thought to drop by her parents house. Quickly, while you were out meeting with the other guards. I know you’ve got a friend up here.”  
“They want her back? They must miss her terr-”  
“They hate her, Levi. They want her dead.”  
The rest of my sentence caught in my throat. How… how could anyone hate her? Much less her own parents? She said she had a happy childhood, she didn’t have scum for parents like I-  
“Then… where’s she going to go? She doesn’t have any money, any friends, any family-”  
“She’s got us. To tell ya the truth… I’ve been considerin’ askin’ her to join the guard.”  
“Wh-what?”  
The waves lapped t the hull of the boat, sending spray up in our direction. I simply watched it flow by.  
“When the cult set fire to that buildin’, you told her to stay back. She refused, even at her own expense. She didn’t care. She wanted to help.”  
I thought about it. He was right. I had seen her there as she arrived, and thought to tell her off but was overwhelmed by the situation at hand. She fought valiantly, without thinking first. While she had impulse control issues, she had shown effort to save people over violence.   
But I worried nonetheless.  
“What if she gets hurt? And the reason she hurt herself… the Allegiance’s Right Hand said something to her… She never told us, but I fear he convinced her of how bad she is for hurting people… But…”  
“I ain’t wanna say she’s good at it, but-”  
I smacked Nassau on the shoulder playfully. He laughed.  
“For real. Her drive to repay what she’d done even though she ain’t done much wrong is commendable. N’ I just thought maybe…”  
“I don’t want to risk her life constantly-”  
“Damn, you’re thinkin’ that far ahead.”  
“No, Commander, That’s the job. It’s dangerous. She’s gone through enough in her life.”  
“But think about it… so did you. And here you are.”  
I stared out along the horizon with a softened gaze, considering what he was saying.   
“Levi, you never did really tell me in full why you ran away.”  
Nassau was staring at me with the gaze of a concerned father, like he always did when he was serious about something.  
“You don’t need to know.”  
“If Jupiter can work past her issues, so can you.”  
“I don’t have issues.”  
“Don’t you call choking a suspect who was innocent out because you thought he was lyin’ and nearly losin’ your uniform an issue?”  
My lip twitched.   
“That was an accident.”  
“And what about when you almost killed that guy because you saw him lookin’ at a gal the wrong way? Was that an appropriate way to handle that?”  
I began to scowl.  
“Accidents. Happen.”  
“But what about-”  
“My dad used to punch me till I was on the ground and then kick me while I was down, okay?! All for trying to protect my mom who told me it was my fault her life was hell. I got fucking sick of it and left. Is that all you wanted to hear?!”  
I had begun to yell, throwing my hands out at him and leaning into his face threateningly. He looked… frightened.  
I took a deep breath like he’d taught me.  
“Happy now? Please refrain from antagonizing me further, Commander.”  
“Levi, I knew it was bad, but I didn’t-”  
“It’s fine.”  
We took the time to sit in silence together, listening to the crashing of waves against the boat. The Island was beginning to come into view. It was a small island with only a few inhabitants. Owned by him.  
I’d kill him.   
I promise, Jupiter. 

\----------

JUPITER’S POV

The days began to pass by slowly without Levi. Lukas continued to drop by and often incessantly teased me about what he called my “crush” on her. I thought it was stupid. She was just… kind to me, that had to be all.   
Dr. Adrians woke me up this morning with the news of a new visitor, one that would speak to me about my psychological state. Suicide attempts apparently weren’t normal, but I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t wished I was dead. It seemed so long ago. She also mentioned the idea that I could have other issues besides some average stuff because of what happened to me. She’d seen it happen before. I thought that was stupid. I wasn’t a psychopath or something. My stomach growled.  
I hadn’t eaten anything in a day or two… I just couldn’t. I gagged when I smelled anything that may have had the scent of food. It just reminded me of prison. As I sat in my thoughts, the door creaked open slowly, and I sat up a little bit to see who it was. I saw the arm of Dr. Adrians, who was in the middle of a quiet conversation with what sounded like an unfamiliar man.   
I was a little frightened.   
I scooted down in my bed, wrapping myself in the blanket. My legs folded up under me in a criss-cross formation, and I kept an eye open for who this guy was.  
Entering with Dr. Adrians was a tall, slim man in a nice suit vest and tie. He had two large horns protruding from his forehead, making him identifiable as a Fiend. A tail trailed out behind him, and he held a few binders in his hands.  
“Ah, is that her?”  
He gestured towards me, still in conversation with Cardinal.   
I hid farther in my blanket, even though his voice was soft and calming. He raised a brow as I pulled the blanket over my head and laid back down. Cardinal spoke softly.  
“Hey, Jupiter. This is the psychologist I was speaking with you about. His name is Dr. Kodak.”  
He approached quickly, and offered a clawed hand out to me. I pulled the cover off my head just enough to see him. I didn’t want him to touch me. I must’ve made a disgusted face, because Dr. Adrians whispered that I didn’t like to be touched to him. He nodded quickly and flipped open one of his binders, pulling a pen out of his breast pocket, clicking it open. Adrians waved goodbye to me and left.   
I didn’t like being stuck in a room alone with this guy. My stomach growled again.  
“Ah, have you eaten?”  
I stayed silent. He tilted his head.  
“Why not?”  
“Shut up.”  
I snipped at him, firmly tugging my blanket over my face.   
“My apologies, ma’am, I can see how this could be troubling… I’ll start with introductions. My name is Dr. Kodak. Kodak is my first name. I have no last name in your language. If it makes you more comfortable, you may refer to me by my first name. I was not told your name, only that I was hired to assist. Tell me, what is yours?”  
“You’re not like, tricking me, are you? You aren’t gonna steal it? I like this name.”  
He laughed warmly.   
“No, not at all. Please, I have no intention of messing with you.”  
“You still don’t need to know my name. Or be here. Bye.”  
“I was afraid this might happen.”  
He took a long sigh. I heard him writing stuff down. It made me nervous.  
“I-it’s Jupiter.”  
“Do you have a last name? For paperwork.”  
“Not anymore.”  
Goddamnit, don’t cry so quickly. I just miss my family is all. One day they’ll want me back, and I won’t… be alone, right?  
“What do you mean, not anymore?”  
“Parents… disowned me.”  
“Oh? How’d they do that?”  
“None of your business, asshole.”  
He laughed slightly again, and I could hear him adjusting his seat. I pulled the blanket off my face to get a good look at him. Glasses sat comfortably on the bridge of his nose, and he kept himself tidy. His hair was gelled back neatly, yet some feather-like hair strands stood up out of the order. A little facial hair had made a home on his chin.  
“But it is my business, Jupiter. I’m here to assess you and understand your behavior and why.”  
“I don’t need assessing, isn’t that creepy?”  
“No, it’s for your benefit. I’ve heard you’ve had numerable attempts to end your own life, and I need to understand why in order to help you.”  
“I don’t want your help.”  
“Is it because I am a man?”  
I almost choked on my own spit.  
“Wh-why would that be the case?!”  
“Because you seem much more open to Dr. Adrians and I’ve heard you’ve made a fine friend in the Lieutenant here. As well as the Advisory Head of Military, however, he would not be someone to be afraid of for the reasons I believe you fear me. He is… flamboyant. You make assumptions about that that deem him safe, am I correct?”  
I wanted to sock this asshole in the jaw for reading my mind or something. Even I didn’t know I thought that.  
“You seem angry. Why does this anger you?”  
He began to jot down something while he spoke.  
“Because I don’t want you knowing this shit about me, okay? It isn’t your problem. I don’t need you here.”  
“But you do. I was not told what your memories were, since I wish to hear it from you, other than that you lost them and when they returned you had a fit. You need help. Levi would want you to get help.”  
“Don’t get in my head, pig.”  
He sighed a little again, turning a ring on his pointer finger. It caught my attention. I loved shiny things.  
“What kinda ring is that?”  
“Hellbound silver. It has a reddish shine to it. Would you like to take a look?”  
He pulled it off his finger and passed it to me. I didn’t want him to touch me. I took the ring quickly and looked at it closely in my hands. It was… beautiful. I passed it back to him quickly in order to avoid pocketing it and not giving it back.   
“You didn’t keep that long.”  
“I didn’t wanna steal it.”  
“What makes you think you’d do that?”  
“H-habit.”  
“Why don’t we talk a little more about that? And anything else you feel you’re able to divulge this session.”

\---------

LEVI’S POV

As our boat arrived ashore, beaching itself, I looked up at the building in front of us.  
The home was gigantic, castle-like, and almost more than a mansion. Brown stone shingles made up the roof and the sandy white stone walls were accented with black and brown. It towered above us, and the front door itself was twice my height. A trellis over a front patio was off to the side, bright white and pastel purple flowers hanging down. Hedges surrounded the outside, a leafy wall that protected the home. Tall palms swung in the breeze leading to the home. A fountain around the terracotta pathway let water cascade down its sides. It was beautiful. I would have appreciated it far more had it not been home to one of the most diabolical criminals I’d had the distinct honour to encounter. A gardener had her back turned to us and clipped away at one of the many hedges, humming lightly to herself.  
“Excuse me-!”  
I waved my hand gently, calling to her.  
When she turned around, she had… a large tattoo under her right eye.   
Bizarre.  
“Oh, visitors!”  
Her curly ginger hair bounced behind her as she stepped over to us, still holding garden shears in bare feet and overalls. Her sunhat shaded her eyes.   
“What may I do for y’all today?”  
She took a gardening glove off and held her hand out. A finger was missing. I’d sincerely hoped it had been a gardening accident.   
“...Is Mr. Greenwater here today?”  
“Master Greenwater… I’m not sure, he mentioned having business, but I don’t know if he actually is out yet or not. Usually, if he’s home, he’s by the pool sunning himself… Even though he only sunburns! He’s simply too pale to tan…”  
She laughed at her own little joke. She looked to be… a little young. Maybe seventeen or eighteen? Either way, she was too young to be working this far out from any sort of mainland, but…  
“May we see him if he is here?”  
“What business are you here for?”  
“Ah, we’re District Guards. We’re looking to speak with a fellow Guard about something that occurred where he used to work.”  
“Oh! He’d love that! He’s always going on about his old job and how they shouldn’t’ve canned him.”   
She giggled again, covering her mouth with the hand missing her ring finger. It was well scarred over.   
“Miss… do you live here?”  
Nassau spoke, who had been quiet the entire time I spoke, simply observing the whole interaction and environment. Nimuel was just being a good little kid in the back.  
“Oh, yes, I have my own quarters in the backyard. I share them with the other workers.”  
“Other workers..?”  
“Yep, we have a few of us working out here for Master Greenwater. In fact, if you want inside to visit, please ask the butler. I’ll call for him.”  
She pulled her glove back on and stuck her hand deep in her overall pocket, pulling out a flip-phone similar to the ones issued by guards. I wondered how he’d gotten them for his workers.   
“There’s some of Master Greenwater’s fellow guards out to see him… Mhm, okay. Yeah, ok. Thanks!”  
She closed it quickly and turned back to us, pocketing it once again.  
“He’s on his way. It may take him a minute, since this house is soooo big.”  
She rocked on her ankles before taking her garden shears and herself back over to the hedge, gesturing with the sharp hedge scissors to the front door.  
“He’ll greet you there. It was nice to meet you all!”  
We approached the door with caution, Nim especially hanging towards the back. He hadn’t really met Jupiter closely, but he knew who this guy was and what he’d done. And he wasn’t all that thrilled.   
After a few moments of waiting, a scrawny looking elf man approached the doors, opening them wide and nodding his head lightly at us. His hair was long and put up in a high ponytail, flowing behind him. His skin was an odd purplish-color, and he was bare-faced. His ears were longer than normal, and under his right eye…  
Another tattoo.   
“Welcome, friends. Master Greenwater is not here at this moment, I’m afraid, but do come inside. Perhaps he will return while you’re here.”   
The elvish man stepped aside, gesturing for us to enter, holding the door open. We filed into the building. The floors were marble and shined perfectly, not a stain present. The expensive and luxurious furniture practically sparkled. I almost feared tracking sand or mud in on my boots, but then I remembered whose home I was in and scuffed my feet along the floor as a jab. It was difficult not to sink a fist into the immaculately painted vase on top of the shelves.   
We followed the butler through the home.  
“Where are we goin’?”  
Nassau questioned, a little nervous around such high societal standards.  
“To the pool. It’s Master Greenwater’s favorite place, and it would be best if you waited there.”  
When we arrived at the double doors, the butler held them open for us.   
“My name is Pascal. If you require further assistance, please, do not hesitate to call me.”  
The pool was expansive, and I wondered what anyone would need a pool for on your own private island. One of the beach chairs was occupied by somebody, which I only noticed as I walked outside.   
The occupant of that chair scrambled to his feet, letting a magazine clatter to the pavement in front of them.  
He was a… large man, round around the belly and well fed, with plenty of chest hair to boot. His black and white hair flopped in his face and was shaved around the sides. His pool shorts were floral, and flip-flops adorned his feet. Large, expensive jewelry hung from his neck and ears. And under both eyes, was the exact same tattoo, now doubled.   
“Wait, Pasc, whossis?”  
His voice was slightly deep and he reached out to catch Pascal’s attention.   
“These are friends of Master Greenwater.”   
“Oh, oh, oh!”  
He placed his hands on his hips.  
“Well, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Apela. He’s not in right now, but what can I do for ya?”  
“We’re here to discuss a woman with him he might know.”  
The man’s demeanor changed and his face faded.  
“What… kind of woman would he know?”  
“A woman he may be interested in hearing about.”  
The words caught in my throat. I hated referring to her like this.  
“I sure hope he isn’t interested in some woman. I’m his boyfriend.”  
\---------

JUPITER’S POV

After a few hours of deflecting questions, Kodak didn’t seem to be giving up. Hunger was gnawing at me, and I still had no intention of eating. I had turned away from him awhile ago, my pain medication having worn off and being afflicted with sharp pains I wasn’t able to control.  
He noticed the change in my behavior and asked about it. I told him I was fine. He moved on, but now he was back to it.  
“Jupiter, please, answer my questions. Even if its just this one. Why did you turn away from me and lay down? Nothing in our conversation changed…”  
“Ugh. Fine. My pain meds wore off.”  
“Your pain meds..? I assume for the bandage on your face?”  
“Yeah, plus the whole thing about being sexually penetrated with a knife,”  
“E-excuse me?”  
“Oops. I shouldn’t have said that.”  
I gritted my teeth, shifting uncomfortably. Stupid Jupiter. You thought you had to be funny, didn’t you?  
“Um… well, this is something I should know about, can you elaborate?”  
“Why, is this your fetish or something?”  
I turned over to see a blank expression. It hurt to move but I thought maybe he’d laugh at that. Oh well.  
“Jupiter, this sounds… very important. I need you to know I will not share this with anyone nor think of you differently. I can tell you want to be liked by people. I can tell you’re trying to win me over and push me away at the same time. But I need to know why so I can help.”  
You know what? What the heck. I’d be dead sometime soon anyway, knowing me.  
“Fine, you win. Are you happy about that?”  
He smiled like a kid getting a gift. What a freak.  
“Yadda yadda, so this guy came in and fucked me with a knife, and I knew him, and-”  
“I’m sorry, was this… consensual?”  
“Huh? Does it matter?”  
“It… matters greatly, Jupiter.”  
Don’t make me call it that. Please don’t make me say it.  
“Um… define consensual.”  
“You wanted it and were clear about it.”  
“Um…”  
My stupid fuckin’ faucets for eyes were watering again. I wiped them quickly and hoped he hadn’t noticed.  
“I… I can’t say it was, but it was just sex, it happens, right? It’s always like that, it always sucks, everyone does it, it’s-”  
“Jupiter.”  
“Huh?”  
“That’s not normal. Why has this been normalized for you?”  
“Well, like I said, everyone does it, and-”  
“However, not everyone is raped, especially not in such a brutal manner… for you to write it off as regular sexual activity is unsettling to me. I’m concerned.”  
He said the word. I wasn’t raped. I wasn’t. I didn’t want it, but it wasn’t rape. That would make me…   
I can’t…  
No.  
“I wasn’t raped, asshat. It just-”  
“Jupiter-”  
“It was just sex, I’m telling you, it doesn’t matter if I consented or not, it’s all the same, it all feels bad to me, it’s all the same-”  
“JUPITER.”  
I reflexively covered my head as he began to shout.   
“I did not mean to startle you. But it heavily matters, in fact, it constitutes the difference between it being healthy sexual activity and a crime against you. Please specify further.”  
“Maybe I did consent. Maybe it was fine by me-”  
“Let me go ask Dr. Adrians then-”  
“No, wait-”  
He stopped his movement to get up.   
“Why are you so afraid to admit it? It is a terrible thing, but it doesn’t make you-”  
“A fucking whore? Yeah it does. It’s gross. I’m gross.”  
“Jupiter… That isn’t true in the slightest.”  
“Well I got what I deserved, didn’t I?”  
He blinked with wide eyes.  
“No… please return to my original question, about why this is so normal to you? Enough that you openly joke about it when it still clearly bothers you?”  
I looked around the room for an escape, and when I found none, I let out an exasperated shout and began to scratch my cheek.  
He wrote a bunch of things down.  
I told him about everything. I recounted specific events at first, but then I felt myself drifting far away from myself, into the stratosphere. I couldn’t remember much of what I said after that. I snapped back to my body when I felt somebody grab my wrist.  
I squealed, jumping back and shaking my hand free.  
“Jupiter… are you there? You’re… you’re bleeding.”  
I pulled my hand in front of my face and saw blood streaked on my fingers and under my nails. He hurried to pull a tissue from the side table and pass it to me. I pressed it to my cheek, where I recalled I’d been scratching. He began to scratch notes down furiously, looking up at me cautiously every few moments.   
“What’d I do?”  
“Nothing, Jupiter. This is all fine. I just need to make sure I write this all down.”  
I sat in silence while he finished up taking notes. He opened another binder on top of the one he’d been writing in and flipped to a very specific page. He tapped one finger hard to it once he found it, and looked up at me.  
“Jupiter, do you find yourself having frequent nightmares?”  
“Um, yeah, it’s hard to sleep.”  
He checked something off.  
“I can tell. You look very tired. And about the eating… you mentioned your food intake was very controlled in prison, and often you were force fed. Is this why you have no interest in eating?”  
“It just feels bad and wrong… and… I don’t know.”  
“I understand.”  
He checked again.  
“I have to speak with Dr. Adrians for a moment. I’ll be right back, but I’ll just be in the doorway, okay?”  
He stood up and moved to his destination. I shifted uncomfortably in my bed again, pain rushing through my body. Talking about it all had made me fade. I felt hazy, tired, and outright sick of existing. I could hear Kodak speaking to Cardinal in hushed tones, but it was all white noise right now. I felt sick.  
I don’t know how long it was before he came back with Dr. Adrians.  
“Alright, Jupiter. I’ve spoken with you long enough. I’ve consulted a little with Card- Dr. Adrians and we’ve reached a conclusion.”  
“I’m all good?”  
“No, Jups. Your not.”  
Adrians crossed her arms in concern. Since when was I Jups?  
“Jupiter, you have Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And quite a bad case of it.”


	11. god (chapter 10)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi speaks with a new ally. Jupiter speaks with her new therapist...something else happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW// R*PE, SEXUAL ASSAULT, IT GETS ALMOST EXPLICIT, PLEASE TAKE CAUTION. IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE THIS, SIMPLY SKIP THIS CHAPTER. IF YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS HERE, I'LL GIVE YOU A MODIFIED SUMMARY SO AS TO GET YOU THE STORY WITHOUT ENDANGERING YOU. DM me at @cryptillii on instagram. Thank you. 
> 
> Remember, I do not CONDONE, SUPPORT, or ENCOURAGE this behavior. In fact, I attempt to show it as diabolical as it truly is. I believe it is the height of evil. Unfortunately, it is part of her (Jupiter's) story.

LEVI’S POV

“Um… That’s interesting.”  
Nassau raised a brow, his face contorting in confusing. I took my turn to speak.  
“We were under the impression he was into women?”  
Apela looked taken aback and almost angry.  
“No, he told me he was only into men?”  
Nimuel finally said something among all this in a biting tone.  
“I think he likes whatever he can put his dick in-”  
Apela stormed over to him quickly and grabbed him by the uniform.  
“How DARE you say that… He is…”  
He started thinking about it.  
“He likes me. He has to. I mean, he…”  
In that moment, a sea dragon rose from the pool with a sad expression. His back was covered in scars. Apela rushed over to him.  
“Tapu, it’s okay, what's wrong?”  
What the fuck?! This guy had a dragon as a PET? That’s… just enslavement. The dragon itself seemed so worn down he had no fighting spirit left in him… his expression reminded me of Jupiter’s on the day she got her memories back. I wished I was with her right now. Nassau took the opportunity to ask what was on our minds.  
“Hey, uh… Is that dragon yer pet?”  
“He is, Milos bought him for me, he said it was legal-”  
“I hate to break it to ya buddy, but I don’t think he came with those scars, and I’m of the impression that all dragon sales are illegal.”  
“Why? He’s so lovely-”  
“You know dragons are… smarter than us, right?”  
“HUH?!”  
Apela seemed to be a little more on the slower side, and was genuinely surprised that dragons weren’t pets, and could just as easily be a person walking down the street. I assumed he didn’t get out much.  
I walked over to check out the collar on the neck of the beast, and I identified it as a form modifier right away. It kept dragons from swapping between humanoid and dragon forms, usually keeping them in their dragon hulls.  
We couldn’t pry it off until we got him back to base. Poor guy.  
“Based on yer care for him, I’m assuming you ain’t given him those scars?”  
Nassau gestured over to the dragon and I. Apela seemed innocent in all of this. Another victim of that evil being’s misdeeds.  
“No, I-”  
“Who issit then?”  
Apela looked to be growing in nervousness.  
“I… don’t want to believe it's a normal thing, but I once caught Milos pulling scales off of him to be sold. Or hitting him. I told him to stop and he said he’d stop, but-”  
“You don’t think he stopped?”  
I spoke up, trying to see if there was any way to get this poor dragon out while we were here.  
“I’m not sure…”  
“What if we told you he’d done this before to a woman and worse?”  
“Huh? Is that… what you’re here about?”  
Apela began looking more and more concerned by the minute, uncomfortable with what he was hearing.  
“Yessir. He brutalized this woman for years and now he’s out lookin’ for her again. That’s where I reckon he went today.”  
“One second. I’m calling him-”  
“Wait, don’t do that. Then he’ll know we’re here for him.”  
“But I can’t trust you! I don’t-”  
Nimuel spoke up again.  
“Do you REALLY trust a man who abuses your pet dragon that he bought illegally and lied about as well as lied about his sexuality?”  
The expression on Apela’s face changed into defeat as he began to realize the truth of our words. Nimuel made a sudden movement towards Apela, and placed a hand on his shoulder.  
“Did he hurt you too?”  
Nimuel’s big eyes ate into him. The large man began to cry a little.  
“Once. I woke up to him… I had said not tonight but... He was…”  
He began to chew on his nails, and the three of us looked between each other in abject sadness. He had gone so long without being caught. He had hurt tons more people.  
The butler, Pascal, suddenly ran out from inside the home and held Apela, who held him back. It was seemingly out of nowhere… had he been listening to our whole conversation?  
“Apela, I had no idea…”  
“It’s okay. I didn’t want to…”  
We all just watched this scene unfold. It seemed that Pascal had some sort of tenderness with Apela that we hadn’t anticipated, and I wondered if perhaps they had an affair.  
Good.  
I hoped that they were.  
It would be better for Apela to have someone there for him. We stayed silent, letting them have their moment, but spoke amongst ourselves.  
“What’s the next move?”  
“Ask him if he knows where Greenwater went.”  
“Do you think he’ll really tell us?”  
Nim looked over anxiously. I had the feeling he wasn’t all that interested in meeting Milos. I was, though. It’s hard to punch someone's teeth out and rip their nails from their fingers if you haven’t met them.  
Nassau turned away from our huddle.  
“Apela, Pascal… do either of you know where he went?”  
Pascal piped up this time around. Apela’s face was too covered in snot and tears for him to speak. I felt sympathy for him, but mostly anger towards the man who hurt him and… and Jupiter.  
“He simply told me he was going to the Horn District for some business… He recently acquired a teleportation band. We were sworn to silence over it. He said it had to do with his old job. I know nothing else.”  
“Thank you, you two. Please, have a lovely afternoon and-”  
“Get yerselves outta here.”  
Nassau ended my sentence for me, and we turned to leave.  
“Wait… please, if you can, let that woman know we… we are so sorry. I should have turned him over for other things sooner, but… He threatened our families.”  
We stopped where we stood.  
“What?”  
“He threatened everyone’s families with death if we didn’t comply with him. And…”  
Pascal bit his thumbnail uneasily.  
“... I noticed him looking at the gardener oddly. It graduated to worse behavior, and I should have reported him, I should have-”  
“It isn’t your fault, sir.”  
I stepped closer to him as I spoke, hoping to provide him with some comfort. 

\-----

JUPITER’S POV 

“You’re kidding me. I don’t even know what that is. Besides, sounds like something a psycho would have. I’m-”  
“No, Jupiter, you aren’t a psychopath. However…”  
“Oh, so there's a ‘but’ to it.”  
“No. Psychopathy is a very different disorder. It’s not just a buzzword to use when you think someone is ‘crazy.’ No one person is crazy. They all have their own difficulties.”  
“I think… you’re crazy.”  
Kodak sighed and rubbed his eyes under his glasses.  
“Jupiter, you’ve been through some very serious things. The combination of ongoing emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in combination with manipulation and deprivation of needs is something that you cannot ignore.”  
“If I pretend it didn’t happen, I can, in fact, ignore it.”  
“You won’t be able to hold that up for long. That’s why I’m here to help you. Your behavior is concerning, particularly surrounding dissociation and suicidal and self harm ideation. You seem to go through with impulses and have difficulty regulating your emotions. These are all trademark symptoms of C-PTSD. There’s no denying what has happened to you is terrible and it isn’t surprising you may suffer long lasting effects.”  
Every word he spoke made me more and more nervous. I must have started scratching again, because he made a small noise and gestured for me to stop. I just moved my hand under my blanket and began scratching my thigh instead, where he couldn’t see.  
“Jupiter, I think I’ll be continuing to work with you on this. We need to work to helping you cope with this-”  
“-Yeah, I’m fine.”  
“Multiple suicide attempts is not ‘fine.’ You need assistance processing your traumas, especially considering you refuse to accept their reality in the first place.”  
“Well, what if I made it all up?”  
“Your memories aren’t made up. A psychic verified that for us.”  
“Why do you care so much?”  
“Jupiter, maybe there are people out there who love you, even if you aren’t aware of it.”  
I didn’t think it was true.  
“Y’know, people actually hate me? I am the most prolific serial killer on the continent, and I did kill all those people-”  
“You were forced to kill them, and the explosion was an accident the same as an avalanche. You never intended to hurt anyone, or even wanted to. I can see it in you. You’re a sweet person.”  
“Yeah, Yeah. Whatever. Shut the hell up.”  
My voice was low and throaty. I was becoming impatient with this guy, telling me people liked me and that I had worth. It was all bullshit and he knew it and I knew it.  
“Jupiter… if you won’t accept my help, you’ll be miserable until you die. That isn’t something you want, right?”  
“Well, if I’m lucky, it won’t be long.”  
Kodak’s expression softened into a sad expression, one full of empathy and concern. I didn’t care.  
“Jupiter, you need help.”  
“YOU need help. Fuck off.”  
I stuck my tongue out at him.  
“Alright, Jupiter. I’m going off to discuss something with Dr. Adrians. We’ll be right outside the door, okay?”  
“Mkay.”  
I took the moment to lay back down as Kodak left the room quietly, his nice shoes clicking against the floor. I studied the roof, letting my gaze shift between each little change in the ceiling. My feelings were that of someone who had been at their wits end… anger, sadness, depression… I didn’t want to have PTSD or whatever it was, I didn’t want to need help.  
And most of all, I didn’t want to live.  
I thought that if I shut my eyes, I could pretend I was dead. If I thought really hard, I could will my unbeing into existence, and save all these people from grief and pain I caused. All I ever did was hurt people. Even Levi.  
And I loved her to death.  
I knew I’d die for her if she’d let me.  
But I knew she wouldn’t.  
And then I heard it.  
A little blip.  
A sound of particles and apparition. I’d heard it before.  
I looked up, praying it wasn’t who I knew it was.  
And it was.  
He smiled at me, his hair hanging in his face, and before I could even scream for help, he was already upon me with a hand over my mouth.  
“I missed you, love.”  
His voice was in my ear, so as to not alert anyone on the outside that he was here. I wanted to kick and scream and fight, but my body wouldn’t move. My eyes squeezed shut. It was as though my soul had left my body. I vaguely felt him slip something on my wrist, still covering my mouth with his hand. It felt like being choked with dirty towels. I wanted to throw up. My heart began to pound in my chest, and I’d wished I’d have a heart attack so I could just leave this moment and get away.  
“It’s been a while, 'asn’t it, Sparky? Since I’ve been able to talk to you.”  
His shitty accent was low in my ear, and I wanted to push him off of me and scream and cry and snap his neck and electrocute him to death but my stupid fucking body wouldn’t. Move. He readjusted himself on top of me. I opened my eyes.  
His big, sickening grin was shone brightly in my face, and his eyes burned a hole through my face. He wheeled his arm back and socked me in the face, hard, and I was surprised I didn’t hear my skull crack under the weight of his fist. In that moment, Adirans must have heard the noise and opened the door.  
“HEY, WHO THE HELL-”  
“I’m taking you with me.”  
He growled at me, still grinning and holding my face with one hand. I heard the blip, and then suddenly, everything faded to black, then white, then black again.

\-----

LEVI’S POV

While we consoled the two of them, clearly in distress, we heard a strange sound. I turned towards the noise, and saw probably what my worst nightmare at this moment was.  
The man we were looking for was holding a dishevled Jupiter, who looked frozen in space.  
“Apela, I brought- Aw, fuck-”  
As soon as I began to charge him, he and Jupiter were gone, and I fell onto the pavement by the poolside in a crumpled mess.  
“No...NO-”  
My voice came out as a shriek, and I pounded my fists into the stone. My knuckles split open, and dark, almost black blood began spilling on the rocks.  
Nassau and Nimuel were watching in horror, and they ran over to me, shouting.  
“THE HELL WAS THAT?”  
“LEVI, YOUR HANDS-”  
Nim and Nassau’s voice cut through the air and I turned around.  
“He- he fucking…”  
“That was Jupiter, right?!”  
“He fucking TOOK HER-”  
I clambered to my feet, and felt my knees shake.  
How… How could I have left her alone for so long? How could-  
Beads of blood dripped off my knuckles.  
“We have to find her. We have to find her right now.”  
Within moments, my flip phone began to ring. I picked it up, my knuckles split and stinging.  
“Hello?”  
“Oh my god, Leviathan, he took-”  
“I know, he showed up here, I saw him for a second-”  
“What are we going to do?!”  
“I…”  
Nassau took the phone from me in my stupor.  
“We’re gonna use our emergency teleportation beads. We’re gonna come back, we’ll work from there, got it?”  
I nodded at him, reaching into my pocket and pulling out the bead. I looked up at Apela and Pascal, who looked horrified.  
“Oh my god… no, go, go, get out of here, hurry-”  
Pascal gestured for us to go and go quickly. I dropped the bead to my feet and stomped on it, and let the pearlescent particles swallow me whole.  
When I returned to base, Adrians hurried over to me. I didn’t care much to notice Nassau or Nimuel come back.  
“Where?! Where the hell could they have gone?!”  
I wasn’t trying to shout, yet my voice only got louder and louder. Adrians was trying to calm me down, but for someone who usually kept herself chill, she was pretty frantic too.  
Nimuel put a hand on my shoulder suddenly.  
“I’m gonna go get Adan, and we’ll go look for her nearby.”  
“No, he’s too dangerous-”  
“We can handle it!”  
Adan, a fiendish kid who Nimuel was very close friends with, ran over.  
“Hey hey hey, did someone say my naaaame?”  
Adan’s usual singsongy voice carried through the air. In truth, they were a little cretin, constantly causing problems wherever they went.  
“Go with Nimuel and look for Jupiter-”  
“Oh, you mean that girl with the spikey yellow hair that shouted at me?”  
“Nim will fill you in.”  
“Gotcha! On my way, ma’am!”  
Adan did a mock salute and then headed off with Nim, giggling. Not all the soldiers knew about her. I only told Nim because he was wondering about her.  
I was too preoccupied with everything that I didn’t really care.  
As Nassau, Cardinal and I were amidst discussions of what to do next, Kodak approached us, voice thick with worry.  
“I shouldn’t have left her alone, it was too dangerous, I’m so sorry, I feel terrible… She’s going to hurt more and it is my fault.”  
Nassau reassured Kodak quietly, but I couldn’t find any empathy for him. He fucked up. He fucked up big time.  
“Levi?”  
Cardinal was speaking to me, and I spun my head towards her.  
“You’re sweating. Your face is dark… do you need to take a break.”  
“I’m not taking a fucking break until we get her back. Not now, not ever.”  
To tell the truth, I was terrified. He could kill her. And one thing was for sure, she wasn’t coming out unscathed.  
As we spoke, a woman ran in the entrance of the settlement. Her garb was flowing behind her, religious in nature, and her headwrap was nearly falling off. She looked frantic.  
“Help- Oh gods, help-!”  
Nassau grabbed her shoulders and tried calming her down with soft ‘heys.’  
“There’s… By the Leskar Stones… a man is hurting this woman, and she-”  
I didn’t listen to anything else the woman said. All I heard was a lead and a location.  
I began putting armor on, I didn’t know what this guy was really like. I didn’t know what he was capable of. But I knew he was scary, and I knew he was large.  
The armor that I wore was a shiny silver. Commander Nassau wore gold. I put my helmet on, adjusting it so that the weight wouldn’t let it fall off. This kind of silver was rare and provided protection to most everything.  
Funnily enough, it didn’t protect you from electricity, and that’s how Jupiter got me the first time we sparred, when she was still on the run.  
I hoped we’d be able to spar much more often.  
I really hoped she’d join the guard.  
But that wasn’t important now, the most important thing in this moment was finding her and bringing her home.  
As soon as she got back, I’d shower her with whatever she wanted.  
God, I just hoped she was okay.  
Nassau and I began to head out. He brought a large rifle and scope with him, the weapon he preferred, and I brought my scimitar.  
I wished I could push the blade far into Milos Greenwater’s neck and watch it gush.  
I wouldn’t even eat that trash.  
Adrians came with us, but she would hang back and be available for medical care should we need it.  
The three of us stepped out into the snow and began to march our way to the Leskar Stones.

\----

JUPITER’S POV

When my eyes opened hesitantly, I saw the sky through a forest clearing. Dazed, I looked around at my situation, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. I felt something vaguely fumble off my wrist.  
A forest surrounded me. I was leaned up against a rock, a very large rock with runes etched into it. The leaves on all the trees were gone and everything green was replaced with a blanket of snow and ice.  
Funny.  
It reminded me of home.  
I looked down at my sweatpants and my torn t-shirt, just the medical garb I’d been given, and then I looked back up.  
And I saw his face.  
But this wasn’t a nightmare, nor was it any kind of reliving of an old memory.  
This was the real thing.  
I moved my lips to scream, and this time, sound escaped my lips. I shrieked at the top of my lungs, howling like a dog for anyone who can hear.  
He got really pissed about that but his smile didn’t fade. It rarely ever did.  
He clapped his hand over my mouth. I continued screaming, though it was muffled, and kicked my legs as hard as I could despite my unceasing trembling. He kept moving around it, and reached to his back pocket and pulled a switchblade out. I didn’t stop screaming. I didn’t care what he did. I was scared, but I couldn’t care if it gave me a chance to get out.  
And it was because of her.  
Every time I thought of her I was given renewed strength to keep fighting so that she never felt at fault for what was happening.  
If I died here, she’d never get over it. She’d blame herself.  
The switchblade caught in my throat, and was pulled tightly across the soft flesh. Ripping pain seared through my body, and my screams slowly became gargles that made little sound. I could feel blood dumping down my neck onto my chest.  
“Fere. Fat’ll fuckin’ shut you up. Not enough to kill you, because I’m not a necrophile, but it’ll keep ya from makin' such a fuckin’ ruckus.”  
He sunk his fist into my face again, and it shook my consciousness. I tried screaming again, but it was just bloody gargling. It began to ooze out between my teeth and past my lips, dribbling down my chin.  
He only made it worse by shoving his thumbs in the wound as he choked all the air out of me. I clawed aimlessly at his hands, but his grip only tightened. I tried shocking myself, shocking him, but something protected him.  
He had planned this.  
He had planned it for a long time.  
I looked to the various bracelets on his wrists, each exuding different magical energies. It had to be that.  
I didn’t realize that I was crying as much as I was till salt was mixed with the blood in my mouth, snot dribbling down my face. He punched me in the stomach.  
More blood squirted out of my mouth.  
“Finally. Fuckin’ finally I found you.”  
His grin was malicious and cruel.  
I was shaking so bad it was hard to move.  
“Now… Here’s the deal, love. I’m gonna grab you, take you somewhere they can’t find us, and I’ll-”  
I didn’t let him finish his sentence. His fault for climbing over me. I kneed him square in the stomach. This only got me socked in the face again. He pulled my hands above my head and pinned them to the snow.  
“You seem to have forgotten the rules, Sparky… don’t worry, I’ll fix you-”  
No.  
No no no no no no no no no no no.  
He was taking his belt off.  
His hand ripped my sweatpants down and I tried to scream again. It hurt like all hell, and it only resulted in gurgling fit for a monster.  
I was one, wasn’t I?  
His fist sunk into my face again. I felt my body start to lose its energy.  
My nose must’ve broke, because I felt blood intermingle with snot as it ran down the bridge of my lip.  
“You don’t remember? You seem to have forgotten how fucking evil you are. You know, fere’s a reason we kept you locked up-”  
I cried out, more blood squirting out of my mouth.  
He punched me again.  
I felt hopeless. I began sobbing harder, but it only hurt that much more.  
I wanted to go home.  
I wanted Levi back.  
“Quit fuckin’ crying or I’m gonna-”  
He smashed my head into the snow. I was fucking cold, but that was the least of my worries.  
He finished taking off his belt.  
I kicked him in the nuts.  
At least his face was fucking hilarious. I tried to crawl away.  
Once he straightened himself out, recovering from the blow, he pulled me back.  
“Oh, okay, Sparks. I see how it is, I see how it is… Don’t worry, I’ll fix you… soon you’ll be just like you were, three years ago-”  
He laughed at me, gripping my cheeks with his free hand.  
I didn’t want to be. I didn’t want to.  
He was…No, I couldn’t face it.  
It hurt.  
I hurt.  
In the middle of it, he punched me again, my hands still pinned above my head.  
He kept saying stuff that I wasn’t listening to anymore.  
Evil.  
Evil.  
Evil.  
Evil.  
I’m fucking evil.  
And I deserved this.  
He was right.  
My sobs were limited to pained gurgling. I tried wriggling out from underneath him, but he just slammed the back of my head into the ground, and everytime he did my vision got blurrier.  
I didn’t want to be in this moment…  
I spent time looking around, seeing blood covering the snow around me. It sparkled, that meant it was all mine.  
But in the snow, I saw something sticking out.  
A little piece of wood, attached to more wood within my reach.  
I pulled one hand out of his. I made my movement quick, so that he couldn’t pin me back down.  
I took the branch and swung it hard at his head.  
He went flying, and this time spots of blood streaked the snow that weren’t mine.  
My vision was becoming fuzzy, but I forced myself up, barefoot in the snow, blood dumping from the wound on my neck.  
I wasn’t gonna last much longer, but I tried to run and tripped in a root hidden in the snow.  
I turned around to see him struggling to his feet in the distance. He was holding his head, blood seeping between his fingers. He struggled to his feet.  
“JOVANA MALCOVIĆ, GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE BEFORE YOU HURT SOMEBODY-”  
And then the impossible happened.  
An apparition, the size of a building, slowly faded into being, light sparkling in the cold sunlight. It was the shape of a stag.  
This is a fucking joke, right?  
I couldn’t help myself from laughing, even if the sound was miserable and weak, more blood spurting out of my mouth and onto the snow.  
It was staring right at me.  
It huffed, and clouds of hot air flew from its nostrils. It slowly, steadily turned towards him.  
Milos.  
It turned toward him, and huffed again.  
It raised it’s hooves, the three horns atop its head reaching for the sky.  
A hoof shot itself through his chest.  
He fell to the ground, mouth agape.  
It fazed through him like a ghost, but it still did something to him, and it must have hurt, because his face was contorted from a smile into a face of abject suffering. Finally, he knew how I felt.  
He fell to his knees. It was as though time stopped, his body frozen in position.  
I could only watch.


	12. safety (chapter 11)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of shit happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW// Mentions of R*PE, SA, GORE, ETC.
> 
> This chapter is a little longer, and Jupiter's POV isn't really included. I feel like the next chapter will also be similar. You'll understand why this is the case as you read, I hope.

LEVI’S POV

Our little rescue group found its way to the Life Sink of the Horn District. We ran the entire way there, but I think that perhaps I had run a little too briskly for the others. I nearly slammed into a lot of people on the way out of town, but most got out of my way. That wasn’t my concern right now anyway.   
The first thing I saw was the Tri-horned Stag.  
A literal god was hovering over the stones.  
This terrified me… the Stag was the patron of justice, one of equity and bringing those down who harmed others. I feared the worst.   
He wasn’t moving though, only huffing, his breath carrying into the air. He was truly a beautiful animal, fit for a god. His hide was outlined in glittering light, but more important, his hoof was fixed in one spot in front of him.   
Gods rarely appeared to us. They rarely appeared to anyone. They only came out to those who needed it most.  
I crouched behind one of the large stones and looked over the side.  
It took all my power in me to not run out to her.  
What I saw I could only describe as grisly.  
She was half collapsed on the ground, blood dumping from a large wound on her throat. The snow was soaked in it, trailing all the way from the rock next to me to where she lay now. She looked like she grew weaker by the moment, and her bleeding out was a very heavy concern of mine. Her face was swollen, her lips split and bleeding as well as her eyebrow. Even more blood ran from her nose, which seemed a little more crooked than it should be. She wasn’t far from me, yet she didn’t notice me. She was transfixed on the god in front of her. From the side, I saw more blood on the back of her head and I sincerely hoped that was the last of it.   
Nassau finally caught up with me, crouching nearby.   
He slowly took his helmet off in reverence. The reflection of the buck shone in his eyes. It seemed as though everyone was transfixed but me.  
“Commander-”  
I hissed, nudging him and getting his attention.  
I gestured to Jupiter, who seemed to slip closer and closer to falling down into the slush and passing out. Her clothes were not suited for this weather. I was concerned about her freezing too.  
“Where’d he go?”  
I shrugged my shoulders quickly, and carefully moved farther around the side of the stone. One of my boots planted in crimson-stained snow, and I shuddered as I knew it was hers. It sparkled like sorcerer’s blood typically did. But a heavy branch nearby, stuck in the snow, was covered in blood that did not sparkle. He’d been hit too...  
Over the edge of the stone, I saw him.  
Frozen in time, unable to move. As if everything had simply stopped. The godly hoof was through his chest, fading through to the other side. Yet he could not move, nor blink, nor teleport away.   
I felt myself shaking.  
Did I go to Jupiter?  
Did I take Milos?  
As much as I would have liked to grab that fucker at that moment, my feet began to move before I could make a decision. Nassau followed close behind. Once he caught sight of the perpetrator, he swerved directions and headed straight for him.  
My vision was fixed on her.  
As I ran, she snapped out of her trance as she heard footsteps fast approaching.  
I heard a horrible sound, erupting from her throat as she tried to scream. It only resulted in an atrocious coughing fit that landed her hunched over with blood pouring out of her mouth. I think it was mixed with snot and vomit.   
The moment I reached her, my voice and body acted on its own.  
I wrapped my arms around her and took off my helmet. She just kept hacking, and I hurriedly removed a gauntlet from my gloved hand and pressed it down on her throat to try and keep it from gushing any more. I turned her around so I could keep her throat covered and hold her at the same time.  
Adrians was rushing over too.  
“Here, here, let me help-”  
She sighed, reaching her gloved hands over and removing mine to apply pressure.   
I hadn’t quite realized I’d picked her up out of the snow, but I had, and she placed a hand on the chest of my armor. It left a smeared handprint in red on the silver. Bubbles of liquid seeped from her mouth, and it sounded like she was trying to talk. She smiled at me, and gurgled out what I deciphered as “Hit… him.”  
I looked back over at the branch that I’d spotted soaked in blood. She was still smiling, trying to get satisfaction from a terrible situation.  
And that was one of many things I liked about her.  
I began to speak in hushed tones to her as Dr. Adrians held her throat down. She pulled some emergency wrapping out of the bag she brought with her and began to tightly wrap it around her throat. That gash was worse than being able to just leave it open and heal that way. I hated the thought of sutures being across my throat and inside my neck.   
“It’s okay, Jupie, it’ll be okay, I’m right here, we got him, it’s over-”  
Jupie?  
I almost laughed at my own foolishness, smiling a little down at her. She seemed like she was laughing faintly too.   
I looked over at Nassau, who had cuffed Milos down into the snow, hands behind his back and tightly bound for extra measure. He kept his rifle pressed into his back. The bands that allowed him to teleport were off and tied to Nassau’s waistband.  
I looked back down to her, brushing some hair out of her face tenderly.   
It was embarrassing to admit, but I leaned down and kissed her forehead gently.   
If I’d had the courage and this had been the right moment, I may have kissed her on her lips, as bloodied as they were. It was a stupid thought… but I was so happy to have her in my arms.  
Was that… cruel of me?   
Was that taking advantage of her?  
The thought made me want to throw up.  
But I never kissed her on the lips, and she seemed to relax significantly after I had pressed my lips to her forehead, despite how violently she was shaking. I looked down at her bare feet.  
I only now realized she was missing three toes, but it couldn’t have been from today because it was all scarred over.   
Adrians was still busy keeping the bandaging around her throat as tight as possible for the time being, and I continued to hold her even as it seemed her vision got more and more cloudy. I just softly hummed a little, trying to keep her calm and feel safe… safe with me. That’s all I wanted for her, was safety, but it was better if it was with me.  
Adrians tapped me on the shoulder. I hadn’t realized I’d been staring at Jupiter’s face so intently.  
“We need to move them, and she needs to get back to the hospital, quick. Those bandages won’t last for long.”  
I obliged, raising myself from the ground and focusing on her. I began to walk through the slush, careful to keep her steady while Adrians followed. I tried to pick up the pace.   
She kept staring back, every now and again trying to gargle something, trying to smile at me. She was still sobbing, and with every ragged, weakened breath she took more tears burst from her eyes.   
She made a little motion with her fingers to try and stop me, and I stopped, hoping it was just for a second, assuming she was going to try and speak again.  
She reached an arm up and pulled the back of my head down, pressing her lips into mine.   
They were bloody. And chapped.  
I didn’t care.  
They were hers.  
I worried this was just her way of thanking me, that she didn’t know any better… but after she pulled away, I saw her silly little grin.  
I assumed and hoped that wasn’t the case. Not with a face like that. But then again, she could have just been reacting to a terrible, scary situation.  
But on the other hand, why would she do that had she not wanted to? Especially not after being taken by the man who abused her for years and years, who’d come back for her and...  
She brought a shaking finger up and booped my nose, bringing me out of my swirling head. It was very difficult, not to burst out laughing at the hilarity of our situation then and there. Instead, though, my thoughts were more fixated upon taking her back to the guard station hospital and having her fixed up.   
Adrians saw the whole thing but said nothing. I think she was too worried about the wound on her neck to care about advancements in my romantic life.  
People certainly stayed out of our way as we made it through town, a woman, identifiable to most as the most violent serial killer out there, bleeding violently from the top of her body, barely clinging to what little consciousness she had left. Two guards fully dressed in armor.  
A doctor in tow.  
And a tall man in handcuffs with a confused smile on his face.   
-  
By the time we reached back to the station, She’d fallen in and out of sleep a few times. I’d kept up my pace, so it wasn’t too long before we found ourselves back. Lukas was standing in the middle of the courtyard, and hurried over.  
“Oh, Oh my god, You- Jupiter-”  
He looked between Jupiter and Milos, stunned into mostly silence and holding a hand faintly over his lips.   
He hurried over, his voice likely louder than he meant for it to be.  
“Will she be alright? What happened? What is-”  
I shushed him, and Adrians held the door for me to the clinic as I hastily set foot inside, setting Jupiter back on the bed she was originally on.  
She looked over at me, still kind of awake, vision turbulent and tearful. She reached her hand over near mine and grabbed it, and I felt her fingers shiver in the palm of my hand. I ran my fingers over the burn scars, feeling each individual one and thinking about how much pain she was in. Lukas was talking to me, but I think he gave up after he realized I wasn’t listening.  
Adrians spoke quietly to me.  
“I gotta get in her neck to stitch it up, I think some important parts got sliced up and need stitching- I’m gonna knock her out, okay?”  
I nodded slowly, and turned back to Jupiter, running my hands through her hair.  
“Jupiter, she’s going to let you sleep, okay? It’ll be okay. I’m not leaving. I’m not leaving anymore. Even while you’re sleeping, I’ll be right here-”  
Milos was in interrogation at this moment, yet I had almost forgotten about him.  
I just wanted her to be okay.  
Maybe this was the first time my rage had been put aside in favor for concern.  
Lukas looked between us as Cardinal stuck Jupiter with a syringe, and I continued squeezing her hand as she slowly fell asleep.   
I hoped she’d find a little peace while she was out.  
Lukas turned to me.  
I hadn’t let go of her hand.  
“Did you get hurt? Your mouth is-”  
“No, no. She-”  
He looked at her mouth then back at mine. He must’ve noticed the sparkle in the stains.  
“Did you-”  
“She kissed me.”  
He sat in stunned silence for a moment. I interrupted his quiet with thoughts of my own.  
“I’m afraid she only did that because she didn’t know how else to thank me, or thought she should, or-”  
“I don’t believe that's it at all.”  
Lukas’s voice was reassuring, to say the least.   
“But she’s… she’s been through terrible things, especially today, fighting for her life, maybe she just didn’t understand-”  
“She told me.”  
“What?”  
“We spoke a little while ago. She, after much pestering, admitted that she likely had feelings for you. I believe she was thanking you, but that she also did it for her own comfort too. I think you make her feel safe and loved. Think about it.”  
I paused for a moment, my brain heavy with ideation.   
“No, that can’t be, she must be confused, I must be taking advantage-”  
“No again. She seemed to talk about you from a place of affection rather than a place of subordinance. I spoke with her another day. She, oh, maybe I shouldn’t say this-”  
“Say what?”  
He must’ve seen the worry heavy on my face.   
“She… admitted she thinks you’re, quote, really hot and that your muscles are really attractive and she likes to look at you, end quote.”   
I think my face darkened. I looked back at her, resting peacefully, although she had fingers in her wound as Dr. Adrians tried to repair the damage to her throat, her hand still in mine before I looked back at him. I squeezed it gently.  
“She… said that?”  
“I wouldn’t lie about that. That girl doesn’t need any more people chasing after her with obsession in their hearts. If I lied to you, I’d be hurting the both of you.”  
I looked back at her, but all I saw was the giant wound, still bleeding onto the bed as Adrians worked away at it carefully. I was frightened a little.   
“Lukas?”  
“Yes, Leviathan?”  
“Do you think… it was a bad time? I don’t know what happened while she was out there, but I don’t imagine it was-”  
“She kissed you. Not the other way around.”  
“But I kissed her forehead-”  
“Anybody can do that. A mother can do that, a brother can do that, a father, a friend, anybody. Let me ask you this… did you do it because you’re simply a friend to her, or did you seek something more and decide against it?”  
I paused.  
“I suppose… I wanted to comfort her, and if it had been a better time I would have-”  
“But you didn’t. You made sure you took care of her without hurting her. I think that speaks to your dynamic a lot.”  
I didn’t want to believe him for fear that I was harming her, or she didn’t understand, or-  
“Levi, I can tel you’re still worried. Let me…”  
He crouched down to where I sat.  
“She… I asked her about what her romantic life was like, if she’d had any partners while she was a thief, because I was curious, and she had asked about mine playfully. She got this look on her face and said it was all gross. That she hated it. But then I mentioned you and it cleared. She said she wouldn’t mind being with you, because…”  
He bit the inside of his cheek, thinking on how to phrase it.  
“Jupiter received only hatred and pain for seven years. She lost everything. She lost herself… but you… you brought her back to herself, even as much as it pains her, she felt love for the first time in seven goddamned years because of you. And that wasn’t a coincidence. Let me ask you this…”  
“...Why did you take such an interest in her case when you saw her behavior? Was it really because you sought justice? Or did you want to believe that deep down, somebody was there, somebody you could love was there?”  
I had never thought of it in that way. It was true, mostly. I believed that she was not evil. She couldn’t have been, and I couldn’t have hated her.  
“But what if she only kissed me because she felt obliged to?”  
“Then ask her when she wakes up.”  
I looked back over to her, when the door creaked open and Nassau entered.  
“Levi, he’s in interrogation. You gonna come?”  
“I… promised Jupiter I would stay here. What you can do for me though, is turn on the heat. Turn it on really high. Make him miserable.”  
My tone had changed from average to vengeful over the course of the statement.  
I couldn’t wait to send him off, but I promised her.  
A promise was a promise. And it meant more than a promise to anyone else. Nassau shut the door quietly.   
-

JUPITER’S POV

Cold. Bitter cold.  
It surrounded me, eating at my skin and bones.   
I was naked in my prison cell, blood running down my face.  
I didn’t even know where I was hurt, much less care.  
I heard his boots clack against the cement, approaching my cell again.   
He’d come back?  
Please.  
Go away.  
Please.   
Please.  
Please.  
He stood in front of the cell door, the gun on his back standing at attention. It was late at night. Or just really cloudy out. It was just dark in my cell.  
I crawled backwards in my cell, the cold chain of my metal collar smacking me in the chest. I could only scoot so far away. He was laughing. He pulled the gun out and smacked it hard against the cell bars, forcing me to jump, which only  
made him laugh harder.  
“Sparky, love, you know you make me laugh…”  
He began to open the door with a screech of the metal. The key fumbled in the stone lock.   
“But you know who isn’t laughing?”  
He mocked a serious expression, still smiling.   
“All the people you killed.”  
Suddenly they were around me, stinking piles of corpses all around, flesh burnt and falling off. I screamed.

-  
LEVI’S POV

Jupiter slept for a good few hours, even after Adrians had finished treating her. I’d taken off my armor halfway through. Her head was wrapped tightly to support the back of her head, which had been bludgeoned quite badly, and according to the good doctor, it was likely she was concussed to some extent. Her nose was taped, having been broken, and so was the split in her lip and eyebrow. Her left eye was swollen shut and bruising had begun to develop around her throat and cheekbones. I helped Adrians with some of the more minor wounds after she sealed her throat, and made sure to pile on blankets to keep her warm amidst the shivering she was still experiencing. Adrians feared signs of infection in her throat wound, but found it strange that it was nowhere else. The answer came to us in more bruising, asphyxiation prints around her neck, and she realized he must have choked her after he slit her throat, getting his filthy hands inside her wound.  
We were prepared though, putting her on an antibiotics IV to make sure she couldn’t get too ill.   
I didn’t let go of her hand except when I was helping Adrians and when I was running my hands through her hair.   
Her breathing was stressful, but we kept it monitored. Milos had just missed her artery on the sides of her neck, only nicking it, and it seemed like that was his intention.  
I waited patiently for her to wake up.  
When she opened her eyes, I made sure to be right there.  
She immediately tried to sit up, her throat making some choking noises and blood still coming up through her mouth. Adrians said that was expected until it all cleared out and healed. It would be hard for her to talk for a week, and no longer thanks to vials of concentrated healing magic that we left to soak in the wound.   
She was shaking horribly and sweating, but she was she was still very cold to the touch.   
“Hey, hey, Jupiter, it’s okay, lay back down-”  
More choking, more garbling.   
“No, it’s okay. Easy, easy.”  
I gently moved her back to a lying position, keeping her head supported by the pillow.   
I brushed the hair out of her face and wiped blood off that had begun to dribble off her mouth.  
“See? I didn’t leave. I’ve been right here.”   
She whimpered a little, water forming at her eyes.  
“Was it a nightmare?”  
I tilted my head a little, resting a hand on her cheek, careful not to hurt her.  
She nodded, swallowing what I imagined was a mixture of fluids that had congealed in her throat.   
“I’m sorry… But…”  
I sighed. I didn’t want to do this.  
“I have two questions for you. One, I need an answer for, even if you just shake your head. The other… you don’t have to answer.”  
She nodded a little, looking over at me with glassy eyes.  
“Did he rape you again?”  
Tears spilled down her face.   
She nodded ‘yes.’  
I felt something boil inside of me but kept it down to avoid scaring her.   
“Okay. It’s okay…”  
I took a deep breath like Nassau had taught me.  
“Why… why did you kiss me? Did you feel forced to, or like you had to?”  
She shook her head no, before opening her mouth slowly and choking out a couple of words.  
“Want… to.”  
I smiled warmly at her. My fang stuck out over my bottom lip.  
“Thank you. I have to go now, but I’ll leave Lukas in here with you. He’s out in the courtyard. I’m going to…”  
I squeezed my eyes shut momentarily.  
“I’ll get him for you. I’ll get that son of a bitch. I won’t let him touch you ever again.”  
And with that, I left the room after calling for Lukas to join her, and headed over to the interrogation room.   
It was boiling hot.   
Good.  
I stepped behind the one sided glass, silence engulfing the room, and watched this weasel squirm miserably on the other side. He was drenched in sweat, and with no hands, had no way to relieve some of the heat, resulting in his clothes sticking to his body. Nassau had been standing there, just in his bodysuit since he’d probably gotten hot. Kodak stood next to him.  
“It’s all you, kiddo.”  
He turned to me, arching an eyebrow up and smiling slightly. It wasn’t a warm smile. It was a triumphant one.   
Kodak spoke up next.  
“I’m going to analyze his behavior. It’s the least I can do.”  
We had come so far over the months we had been with Jupiter.   
It was time to end this.  
I clicked open the door to the room, and slammed it open, stomping in. I wasn’t pulling any punches.  
“Woah, woah chill out, friend-”  
His accent was thick, cockney, and certainly disgusting.  
I spun the chair around and sat leaning over the back, legs around the sides.  
“Hello, Mr. Greenwater.”  
“‘Ello. What’s fis all about?”  
He had the audacity to play fucking dumb. His hands jiggled in their locks, bound tightly with rope on top to keep it secure.  
“I think you know.”  
“No, I don’t, I fink you all are a little confused…”  
He smiled and tilted his head.  
“We’re all guards here.”   
I reciprocated his movements, tilting my head and smiling.  
“Oh, but I was of the impression you were fired for letting her escape?”  
His smile faltered ever so slightly, but he picked it back up.  
“Fat’s why I’ve been lookin’ for ‘er. To catch her again. I gotta make up for my past mistakes, yeah?”  
He smirked innocently, and all in all, his act was pretty convincing. His earnest behavior seemed genuine. I knew better.  
“No, I don’t think that’s it.”  
“Oh, come on, you of all people should understand. You know what she’s done!”  
“No, actually. We don’t. Care to fill us in?”  
I placed my fist under my chin. His teeth gritted a little bit, but that little smile did not fade.  
“Well, she killed her girlfriend in cold blood, fen firteen and more people, fen a shit load in prison, I’m surprised you were unaware? Fis is rather large… She’s evil.”  
“Mmm… I don’t think so.”  
His brows furrowed in incredulity.   
“Wot? No, no, you misunderstand… I was the leadin’ officer on her case. I found the evidence in her home. I saw the knife, had her fingerprints all over it, had traces of blood on the blade-”  
“Yeah. Did you ever use magical analysis to determine the origins of that blood?”  
His smile almost faded entirely.  
“No, there was no need-”  
“There’s always a need, LOVE.”  
I spat his words back in his face, and passed him the results of the magical analysis Kandi and another source had done for us upon request some weeks ago.  
“This… this is impossible.”  
“Not at all. It’s her mother’s blood.”  
“She must’ve attacked her mother wif it-”  
“No again. Her mother likely cut herself on it cooking. It’s a kitchen knife, after all, Mr. Greenwater.”  
I could hear him grinding his teeth under that small, innocent smile.  
“And… Mr. Greenwater, did you ever think to have a psychic come in and check her memories?”  
“Wasn’t necessary. We knew she was a liar and that she’d-”  
“Psychics can verify the credibility of memories too.”  
He started sweating again, but I began to think that it wasn’t from the searing temperature in this room.  
“You see, when we got acquisition of her-”  
“I can’t imagine you treated her kindly, fat would be ridiculo-”  
“She received the utmost respect, Mr. Greenwater. She’s a person too. Besides…”  
I leaned closer to him.  
“I’ve known there was something wrong with this case from the beginning.”  
“And fat would be…?”  
“You.”  
His eye twitched ever so slightly. I stifled a laugh.  
“Fis is ridiculous. You of all people should know fat case was closed a long time ago. I closed it. She’s the killer. We all know it.”  
“Y’know, you never let me finish my original statement. When we took her in, we checked her memories. And after the initial check, we checked again and found something very interesting.”  
“You found nuffink of the sort.”  
“Oh, but did we!”  
“Fose memories were faked. She liked to try and manipulate everything, you know.”  
“Oh, so you DO know what we’re referring too?”  
He rolled his eyes and leaned in a little closer.  
“Look, whatever you found might not be the truf. You see…”  
He looked off to the side, past me, past the glass as though he could see.  
“I… am ashamed to admit it, but we were rafer intimate wif each other. Crazy, I know, but she liked to spin it back on us. Say I raped her. She’s real convincin’ ‘n shit. Truf is, we had sex a few times. And to be honest-”  
He laughed a little.  
“-She was a right hot fuck. Kinda sad she’s a monster.”  
The acid in my stomach began to rise in my throat. I stood up, calmly and slowly, before walking over to him and crouching down.  
“Oh, is that what happened?”  
He nodded, still smiling.  
“Tell me more.”  
“Well, she’d beg me for it almost nightly, and I’m a nice guy, so-”  
“Then why are you beating the hell out of her in every memory? Why do the memories feel so sickening? Why has she tried to kill herself multiple times even though she believes she deserved it all?”  
I picked him up by the shirt collar and slammed him into the wall. The wound on the side of his head we hadn’t bothered to treat popped open again.  
He laughed a little.  
“Holy shit woman, you are STRONG-”  
“Don’t call me woman.”  
I almost expected Nassau to stop me, so I glanced over at him.  
He just nodded.  
I socked him in the face as hard as I could.  
He spit a little blood out.  
“Goddamn, you fuckers are nasty! No wonder you’re siding with her-”  
“Tell the fucking truth. What did you do to her? What happened? Why?”  
I shook him violently, and despite his height he was rather light and his head rolled like a bobblehead.  
“Good lord, woman, you’re gonna kill me-”  
“Aww… would that be so bad though?”  
I pouted at him before throwing him to the ground. Nassau normally wouldn’t let me do this to criminals. I guess he was the exception to the rule.   
He looked a little unnerved, but I thought it was fake fear.  
“Woah, woah, woah, okay, okay, I’ll tell you what you wanna know-”  
He smiled.  
“It was a lot more than a few times we fuck-”  
I kicked him in the nose with the toe of my boot. I felt it break.  
Just then, Kodak knocked on the door and opened it, motioning for us to step out.  
“Aww, did ya get in trouble?”  
Milos laughed from the floor, spitting out some more blood at me. He missed.  
We closed the door behind us. Kodak inhaled a deep breath.   
“Combining what Jupiter said and his behavior I can safely say this man is a narcissist of some kind. Probably psychopathic as well. It’ll be hard, but you might get him to crack. Just be careful.”  
“That would be?”  
“Insult him. Berate him. Just go for the all out petty stuff. The more that weighs on him, the angrier he’ll get. Good luck.”  
Kodak opened the door and held it, letting us back in the room. He had readjusted himself back up on the chair, which was impressive considering he didn’t have the use of his hands.  
“Milos, I didn’t know that you were that pathetic.”  
I slipped my hands into my pants pockets.   
“We were just informed that… well, she said… and this is a little silly…”  
I snickered. Nassau went along with me.  
I made a little pinching motion with my pointer finger and thumb.  
“You can’t get it up, can you?”  
He blinked at us, stunned slightly before laughing.  
“Ha ha. Good one. I can assure you fat is a lie too, I most certainly can, but fat’s besides the point-”  
“Little dick, huh? Must be a sad life you live.”  
Nassau joined in, laughing a little. Each time we spoke, his smile faded a little more.  
“I mean, you’ve got a small dick and you can’t even keep a prisoner in her goddamn cell!”  
“Excuse me, she escaped-”  
“Yeah, under your watch, buddy.”  
I sat back down and looked at him.  
“You know what else we learned?”  
“W-what?”  
“Your dad thinks you're pathetic. We spoke with him. He laughed at you, yknow?”  
I grinned at him, leaning in closer.  
“You all are just messin’ wif me, this is one fat fuckin’ joke-”  
“Nah. We just think your sad little existence is humorous.”  
Nassau leaned over the table.  
“You can’t do anything right, can you?”  
And in that instant, his smile turned into a frown.  
“I don’t know who the fuck you two fink you are, but I’ll have you know I am INCREDIBLY successful.”  
His teeth began to grind against each other.  
“I get whatever I want. You wanna know somethin’ funny? Somethin’ really funny? I can get what I want when I want it. And she had the audacity to deny me, to call me an old motherfucker and fat I was ugly, and you know what? I wanted her. So you know what I FUCKIN’ did? I HAD FAT BITCH KILLED. FAT STUPID FUCKING WEREWOLF BITCH DIED UNDER MY NAME, AND I HAD HER. I MADE SURE SHE WAS MINE, YOU SEE THAT BIG ASS FUCKING SCAR UNDER HER EYE? SHE’S MINE, YOU GOT FAT? I’LL FUCKIN’ HAVE YOU KIL-”  
He suddenly shut himself up, realizing what he said, and wiped spit onto his collar.  
“I want a lawyer.”  
“You aren’t getting one.”  
“What? Why not?”  
“You don’t need one. We just got your confession to at least one murder. We have evidence of your abuse towards her, and you practically just admitted it.”  
I stood up, walking back outside the door but paused as I heard him speak longer.   
The iridescent shape of the stag had formed around his head.   
He began to speak, almost forcefully, honesty being choked out of him by the powers that be.  
His voice was reluctant, like trying to stop an oncoming train that just powered through, a monotone truth serum he couldn’t stop.   
“I watched her when she was so pretty and young- I saw her walking home from school and I just… I needed her. I needed her to be mine. But that bitch was in the way. Fat werewolf skank. So I offed her. Hired a guy.”  
“When she exploded, I had an opening… I pinned it as intentional. Everyone believed me. Nobody would not believe me. I was the Captain. I found the evidence.”  
His face twitched as he tried to stop it. The stag’s shape formed around him, almost forcing his mouth open.  
“When she went to prison, I transferred fere to be the head of prisons. I didn’t give a shit about any of the other prisoners. I’d let them die of cold or whatever. I beat her. I tortured her. I raped her.”  
He gasped for air, struggling to keep the words from falling out. He was sweating again.  
“I mind controlled her, made her kill other prisoners. If she didn’t kill them with her hands, I shot them in the head. Blew their brains out. It was all a game-”  
The stag faded, and he choked, looking absolutely distraught and terrified about what had happened.   
I held the door open for Nassau and exited quietly. 

Kodak met us outside. Lukas must have joined him at some point during that. I’d hoped Adrians was watching Jupiter. He looked troubled, but Kodak was smiling softly.  
“I didn’t realize he was that easy to crack. I bet he rarely gets talked down to.”  
I nodded. I didn’t feel like saying much. Nassau placed a hand on my shoulder, motioning for me to turn around. He spread his arms for a hug. I took it.  
I turned to Lukas after pulling away.  
“What now?”  
Lukas’s face was incredulous.  
“So… he did all of this because…”  
“Yeah. She denied him. So he made her.”  
Lukas scowled, turning quickly, lost in thought.  
“It’s been a while since we’ve had an execution… but with the amount of people who have died under his hand, proven… what he did to her… I have to admit, it feels necessary. We can’t risk escape. We can’t risk him hurting anybody else. I heard his confession…”  
He turned back around to face us.  
“As the Military Advisory for District of the Horn, I decree that Milos Greenwater be executed within the week. I’ll begin making preparations and finalizing my decision with the rest of the Advisory. For now… take him away. I don’t want to see him any longer. He is…”  
“The real monster here.”  
Behind the glass, I turned to see him kicking and screaming alone in that room. He’d kicked over his chair, the table, my chair. He was kicking the wall where the glass lay and screaming at us.   
“LAWYER. LAWYER. I WANT A FUCKIN’ LAWYER-”  
I simply left in silence. I had to return to Jupiter.  
Opening the door to the hospital quietly, I noticed that the lights were dimmed. Adrians was reading nearby, and I approached her quietly.  
“Why is it so dark in here?”  
“After you left, she threw a fit. I had to sedate her a little bit, she was gonna hurt herself. I think she was afraid of what would happen if you weren’t around… combined with some type of break she had. I was planning on bringing you both back soon, but it seems like you ended things quickly.”  
God, Jupiter, I’m so sorry.  
I approached her bedside. She was covering her head with her hands, curled up in a ball and shaking.  
I gently set a hand on her back and rubbed it, trying to keep her calm. She jumped a little, looking back up at me with a soggy eye, her other one swollen shut.  
“I’m back. I got him. He’s to be executed this week. He confessed.”  
Her eyes widened a lot, and she started gurbling and flailing her arms faintly.   
“Hey, hey, calm down. It’ll be okay-”  
She pointed violently at a pad of paper across the room. I brought it to her with a pencil.   
She scribbled on it for a little before passing it back.  
‘What if I made it all up? He doesn’t deserve to die for punishing me. I deserved it.’  
“Jupiter…”  
I looked deep at her eyes. They really were beautiful. Electric.  
“He confessed. To all of it. It lined up exactly with your memories. It’s what happened. And… what he did to you is inexcusable. That is not punishment. That is abuse and torture.”  
She began scribbling again. She looked exhausted. I felt terrible for her.  
‘I deserved it.’  
“No, you didn’t. You never hurt anybody.”  
Kodak entered the room quietly, took a moment to speak in quiet tones with Adrians, then approached us slowly.   
“Levi?”  
I looked over at him. He noticed what she had been writing and sighed.  
“She… has C-PTSD. I diagnosed her with it before he took her-”  
I blinked. We hadn’t yet had a chance to speak about it.   
I remembered reading it about a long time ago. I remembered being thankful I didn’t have it in spite of the situation I grew up in. I had nightmares from time to time, but it never was quite like that.  
I looked back over at her.  
“Adrians said she threw a fit. Was that..?”  
“You know about it?”  
“A little.”  
“Her ‘fit’ was not a fit. She relived it for a moment and it scared her. That’s all.”  
I ruffled her hair gently. She laid back down and started crying a little bit. Kodak leaned a little closer, keeping his voice low. It made sense why the lights were dimmed and we were speaking quietly. It was to avoid overstimulation and scaring her further. Loud noises, according to her memories and how Milos shouted when I spoke with him, must be frightening.  
“Jupiter, can you tell us about it?”  
She picked up the pencil and held the pad of paper in front of her. She put it down to the surface of the paper, before dropping it and breaking into tears. She picked it back up again and wrote two words.  
‘I’m scared.’  
I just let the paper and pencil fall to the ground, wrapping my arms around her and letting her cry. I stayed there for as long as she needed, Kodak watching carefully, until she fell asleep.  
I knew she wouldn’t find so much peace in her sleep. But I wanted her to find peace wherever she could.  
I’d make it happen.


End file.
